Religion will be the subject. I expect this does not hurt someone's person's sensibility.
In a time that boasts that tabus have been eradicated , as free talk on sexual matters shows, a surprising note is the use of euphemisms to refer to the divinity or total abstention from mentioning it. But the social behaviour regarding that matter is biased by another note: the mutual respect we show to others opinions. In a world so vastly populated, we must regard with respect what other people think and feels, lest we engage in dangerous quarrels. I once read that the exquisite delicacy with which Chinese treat each other is due to overpopulation. Little frictions can have great effects.
So, mentioning my god in public, can offend the others religion believes. And we see people from other creeds so frequently that caution seems a good rule. Besides the fact someone in my family can be deeply pious and I could offend him by only mentioning God's name --I wonder if every religion has a general name for
God, like us. We do not really use a proper noun for Him.
We are every day more polite, specially men, so it's not odd swearing is not frequently used. But what happens with the most frequently used swear in any modern western language: "by God!". I see it so little used in the forums I frequent that I am forced to ask. But even looking into the whole Internet such a formula I can't see it mentioned, save for dictionaries. There seems to be a tabu about religious matters notwithstanding our freethinking way of life.
It is not me who is going to unveil this mystery, but one timid hypothesis is: the US is the country which more consistently and strongly has influenced the West in the last hundred years. I won't say it's a country of puritans, like I heard in a picture by Woody Allen last night though the pilgrim fathers certainly were, . But, tell me, in Italy, a country that has seen dozens of civilizations on their soil they are much more liberal minded than in the States. Its influence in everything touching common life can't be denied, from the Coca-cola to the wearing of jeans. But nations live in proximity more than at any other time in history and proximity, as I was saying, generates courtesy in order to survive. So, this is another variable in the equation, which in itself must be very complex. I felt like talking.
In a time that boasts that tabus have been eradicated , as free talk on sexual matters shows, a surprising note is the use of euphemisms to refer to the divinity or total abstention from mentioning it. But the social behaviour regarding that matter is biased by another note: the mutual respect we show to others opinions. In a world so vastly populated, we must regard with respect what other people think and feels, lest we engage in dangerous quarrels. I once read that the exquisite delicacy with which Chinese treat each other is due to overpopulation. Little frictions can have great effects.
So, mentioning my god in public, can offend the others religion believes. And we see people from other creeds so frequently that caution seems a good rule. Besides the fact someone in my family can be deeply pious and I could offend him by only mentioning God's name --I wonder if every religion has a general name for
God, like us. We do not really use a proper noun for Him.
We are every day more polite, specially men, so it's not odd swearing is not frequently used. But what happens with the most frequently used swear in any modern western language: "by God!". I see it so little used in the forums I frequent that I am forced to ask. But even looking into the whole Internet such a formula I can't see it mentioned, save for dictionaries. There seems to be a tabu about religious matters notwithstanding our freethinking way of life.
It is not me who is going to unveil this mystery, but one timid hypothesis is: the US is the country which more consistently and strongly has influenced the West in the last hundred years. I won't say it's a country of puritans, like I heard in a picture by Woody Allen last night though the pilgrim fathers certainly were, . But, tell me, in Italy, a country that has seen dozens of civilizations on their soil they are much more liberal minded than in the States. Its influence in everything touching common life can't be denied, from the Coca-cola to the wearing of jeans. But nations live in proximity more than at any other time in history and proximity, as I was saying, generates courtesy in order to survive. So, this is another variable in the equation, which in itself must be very complex. I felt like talking.
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