I believe a complete study of the vocabulary we use to describe and create our reality must include a study of profanity and curse words. These words include, but are not limited to fuck in any and all of its emphatic forms (fucker, fucking, fucked up, fucked over, etc.), shit (shitty, bull shit, full of shit, shit head, etc) damn, God-damned, bitch, bitchy, dick, dickhead, dickless, etc and the entire vocabulary of colorful vernacular which the Human race indulges in countless times daily.
Now my mother always taught me I should never use such language; her reason being, it would make me appear crude, filthy and coarse. In hindsight, she was absolutely correct, but her reason never really did provide me sufficient incentive to stop.
What does give me reason now is a fresh look into how words in general influence our state and our lives: a single word can contain a state and our words determine our emotional states.
If you accept our minds create meaning and context from language by association; then particular words serve as linguistic representation for the feelings, sounds and mental image pictures that have become associated with it through habitual use. Your neuro-physiology fires off and responds to the now use of that word in precisely the same fashion as it has innumerable times in past uses. It must because that's how it's been wired in and conditioned. It then becomes very clear what we are doing to ourselves when we use this kind of language. We trigger and activate the worst in us.
In other words, the specific kinds of states profane words evoke aren't happy, constructive, positive or resourceful. The collection of emotions and memories which underlies their associations are some of the nastiest, most painful and unhealthy we possess.
See for yourself: say the word fuck, fucker or bullshit out loud. Don't just think it, you'll need to actually speak the word to activate the neurological triggers. How do those words feel in your mind/body? What sort of thoughts, memories and associations come to mind? Where does your focus go with these words? What changes occur in your physiology (breathing, muscle tension, overall energy, etc) Specifically, what state results from each of these words?
When I say the word shithead, I immediately experience going back in time to my 6th grade playground after school and there's the the 7th grade bully towering over me, calling me a shithead right before he pummels me. The very same state I was in then is to some degree, activated and experienced now: fear, apprehension, anger, pain, confusion, rage, anxiety, adrenaline, hyper-ventilation, shallow breathe, sweat, shakes, etc.
If you accept that a single word contains a state, then it becomes simple to see why many people consider certain words offensive; they don't want to hear them because the states they evoke are full of too many unpleasant mental associations and uncomfortable physiological responses. Of course, most people are completely oblivious to the underlying mechanism of WHY this happens, yet they certainly know when they experience it.
It gets worse...many of us have unconsciously modeled the person(s) and their behaviors we associate with these words. The greater the conditioning of the association, the more profound the effect they have upon us. Over time, with repetition and intensity, these associations can become really hard and deep wired. Is it any wonder when I say "God dammit" I sound exactly like my father? If I sound like him, aren't chances good I also feel like him? Who's to say in some way I don't really become my father at his most angry, irrational, unforgiving worst with every use of that word?
Finally, consider the collective associations of racially derogatory words and the states they provoke and sustain. Think of the repository of hate, filth, violence anger and all the negative associations we take onto ourselves when we use those words. No preaching here, just an observation that language and emotional states are linked via a unique connection; an idea very much worthy of our attention as we contemplate our own happiness.
No comments:
Post a Comment