Rodent Regatta

Gene Veith is a professor of English at Concordia University in Wisconsin. He’s also the culture editor of World Magazine, one of my favorite publications.

On the op/ed page of today’s Wall Street Journal is his editorial titled Curse of the Foul Mouth – It’s Not Just Celebrities; Profanity is Everywhere. Here are two excerpts that made my day:

Patricia Heaton, of ”Everybody Loves Raymond,” could not take it anymore. Scheduled to introduce a segment of the nationally televised American Music Awards, she found herself getting more and more offended at the sex talk, the leering poses and the nonstop expletives, especially from the emcees, the bleeping Osbourne family.

”As far as I’m concerned,” she said later, ”it was an affront to anyone with a shred of dignity, self-respect and intelligence.” She walked out. Her colleagues were no doubt genuinely surprised that anyone would actually be offended by offensive language.

Such language is like cultural wallpaper now, everywhere present—from cable TV to rap lyrics, from casual conversation to prime-time award shows. At the recent Golden Globes, U2’s Bono sent out to millions of living rooms a word your grandmother probably never heard spoken and certainly never spoke herself.

The existence of profanity is odd evidence of the persistence of religion even for people who think they are secular. Cursing rests on the assumption that the spiritual realm is real. It is ironic to hear people who do not believe in God continually invoking him in their speech. Those who believe that, if there is a God, he is nonjudgmental and omni-nice can be heard calling down divine wrath on persons and things that make them angry. Meanwhile, status-conscious teenagers and fastidious socialites use barnyard imagery that used to mark the vulgar and dclass.

Words have meaning, even if those who use them do not know what it is. And to those for whom nothing is sacred, everything is profane.