BBC Radio Leicester Thought for the Day
© John Denney 27 June 2003
I
don’t know why I was offended, but I was.
Greg Rusedski was on the receiving end of what he thought was a wrong
umpiring decision, and he lost it. On
prime time TV he let rip with language that would have made a trooper
blush. I’m not an expert, but he seemed
to use just about every profanity going.
At least he had the grace to apologize for his unseemly outburst, once
his temper had cooled.
Perhaps
I had a model of Greg in my mind: a cool, civilized, motivated professional who
could brush off unfairness and get on with the job. Maybe it was the shattering of that illusion
that offended me. It seems we have to
accept the use of offensive language in all sorts of TV programmes and films
these days. Is it me, or does the
“strong language from the start” warning so often broadcast have a whiff of
hypocrisy? If the broadcaster knows the
language will offend, shouldn’t they take steps to mitigate it before making
the programme?
Maybe
it’s the poverty and repetitive banality of modern swear words that offends me. There used to be some splendid Elizabethan
curses. What about “Thou beslubbering
beef-witted bugbear”, “Thou spleeny base-court malt-worm” or “Thou spleeny
rough-hewn clotpole”, for example. Or a
hundred years later, the great insult “Sir, under pretence of keeping a
bawdy-house, your wife is in fact a receiver of stolen goods”. So much more inventive, don’t you think?
But
maybe it’s the fact that so often swearing goes hand in hand with aggression
that is the root of my being offended.
People don’t curse when they’re being kind. People don’t swear when they’re given
praise. People don’t use bad language
when things are going well. The Bible
has some wise advice: You used to walk in
these ways, in the life you once lived.
But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger,
rage, malice, slander and filthy language from your lips.[1]
And
why does the Bible say this? Because
anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language are negative and destructive,
both for the hearer and the speaker. Let’s make a conscious effort today not to
cause offence. Keep that expletive to
ourselves. Maybe we can make the world a
better place.