Comments on: Quaker Whupass http://listics.com/200408022075 Frank Paynter's Voice and Vision... Thu, 25 Oct 2024 16:50:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3 By: phaTTboi http://listics.com/200408022075#comment-47428 phaTTboi Mon, 02 Aug 2024 19:05:25 +0000 http://listics.com/200408022075#comment-47428 If the judeo-christian progeny are right, God mainly cares about being taken seriously. Protestant versions of the generally accepted text of the first, second, and third Commandments demonstrate this, and the third (in this version) contains the prohibition against taking God's name in vain. The prohibition is against blaspheming, not against talking dirty, or being unoriginal. But personally, I've found that attitude that requires profanity isn't particularly impressive. Dick Cheney says it make him feel good, and I suppose for most people, getting the emotional release of saying something profane balances any social negatives. A lot of people even go for the social negatives, as if by doing so, they can make the object of the profane utterance feel particularly square or puritanical. But what is immediately affecting, truly frightening, viscous, and memorable is the person who drops his voice 10 db, and says something in a measured, cold way that makes the person to whom the comment is directed something less than a person. That's the technique of sociopaths and venomous snakes, and it works its way quickly into nightmares and phobias. No profanity necessary. If the judeo-christian progeny are right, God mainly cares about being taken seriously. Protestant versions of the generally accepted text of the first, second, and third Commandments demonstrate this, and the third (in this version) contains the prohibition against taking God’s name in vain.

The prohibition is against blaspheming, not against talking dirty, or being unoriginal. But personally, I’ve found that attitude that requires profanity isn’t particularly impressive. Dick Cheney says it make him feel good, and I suppose for most people, getting the emotional release of saying something profane balances any social negatives. A lot of people even go for the social negatives, as if by doing so, they can make the object of the profane utterance feel particularly square or puritanical.

But what is immediately affecting, truly frightening, viscous, and memorable is the person who drops his voice 10 db, and says something in a measured, cold way that makes the person to whom the comment is directed something less than a person. That’s the technique of sociopaths and venomous snakes, and it works its way quickly into nightmares and phobias. No profanity necessary.

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