The Mentality of the People Around Us

H

Hornius Emeritus

2,500+ Posts
So, I'm driving down the road and I pull up to a stoplight. I had to make a right turn so I was in the right hand lane behind two other cars.

A pickup truck that was going straight passed me in the lane directly to my left and eased up to the stoplight. I saw that he had a bumper sticker that said "Born to ****."

As I looked at it, I said "what kind of person is that, that would so provocatively put "Born to ****" on his bumper sticker, where small kids, parents of small kids, nuns, and other folks can see it, without (apparently) caring what they think? I mean, I've been in my friends cars when their four and five year old kids start sounding out/spelling the words that they see around them. Can you imagine a young kid saying "B-O-R-N ..... Born ... To... F-U-C-K. Mom, what does F-U-C-K spell?"


I couldn't see the guy who was driving, but I was able to make some broad assumptions about him ---- all of them disparaging.

So my question is: what is in people's minds, that they could be so uncaring about their fellow men? And are we, in general, experiencing a basic coarsening of society?
 
PussyWagon1.jpg
 
Some people don't believe that there is such a thing as "bad words."
I am one of them, I don't have children but it seems to me that my child will learn the words anyway.
As long as they know what they are used for and when they are appropriate, I wouldn't mind if they asked while seeing the word or hearing it in public.
 
i read no country for old men a couple years ago and didn't like it because i found it to the blatherings of an old disconnected man. but i'll be damned if cormac mccarthy wasn't right. when you stop saying m'ams and sirs, it all goes to hell.

society has gone to shyt. it's a daily occurence where some pedestrian is run over and the offending car or cars don't even bother to stop to render aid. political discourse has devolved into an arguing sport with no real intent of hearing the other side. fandom for sports is just downright mean to opposing teams. thank yous and pleases are uncommon. i can't count how many times i hold doors open for people w/out so much as even an acknowledgment of thank you.

i blame the internet. who would've thought that ubiquitous information would be a bad thing. instead of reading of differing opinions, we just read and subscribe to thoughts reaffirming our views. ubiquitious info has breed narrowmindedness.

but i lay most of the blame on mtv and rap.

and no, religion is not the answer. most of the worlds problems stems from my religion is right, yours is wrong mentality.
 
As an aside, I think in fact there are such things as cuss words - though whether they are bad or not is a judgement to make. Cursing occurs in virtually all languages. It involves taboo words which commonly concern archaic notions of filth (stuff from our orifices, etc), sex, and, from the spiritual side, condemnation (damn you to hell!). Read Pinker on linguistics for some entertaining stuff.

I'm with emeritus on using some sensitivity in such proclamations. My similar such sensitivity in making religious or political proclomations that I find revolting. But, whatcha gonna do?

Which gets us to the flip side of Ryan's point.
 
I have a problem not with it being the copulatory use of the word. I "f" bomb all day and even accidently around my kids. I don't have a problem with cussing per-se, but having to explain to them the sexual nature of the bumper sticker makes me sick.
 
Well if you look at it from a biology stand point...we are all "Born to ****"...in order to reproduce.

Just make it a scientific conversation if they ask...
wink.gif
 
Some might find a "jesus is my co-pilot" sticker equally as offensive. It's a matter of perception. But yeah, fellow man is laughing while you're laying in a pool of blood on the street. Thats the reality.
 
take a long look and overview of the planet for a few minutes and think about it....your conclusion should be that 99.9% of the people are morons.
 
The thing about using traditionally "foul" language is that:

Sometimes the use of those words can be extremely effective in conveying some sort of point.

But, if you use them all the time, it just sounds like you have a dirty mouth.
 
I wouldn't say 99.9%, but I agree that there are lots of morons in the world. It's sad. We as a race are a failure. Most people in the world are born in, shall we say, un-privileged conditions, and most of those un-privileged people lack the talent/will/intelligence/whatever to overcome the obstacles in their lives and thrive.
 
We need more people like my buddy in Houston:

We were riding down Bissonet, right after work. We are at a standstill, and parked right behind a dude in a pickup with several profanity-laced windshield stickers. My buddy had two kids, and had recently tried to explain to them what similar stickers meant.

Anyway, we see the stickers, I laugh at one of them ("gas, grass or ***...."), and he turns beet red and tells me to grab the wheel. He gets out of his truck and walks forward to the "offending" truck. He yells at the guy, " DO YOU KNOW WHY I'M ABOUT TO KICK YOUR ***??" Tough guy says, "No?". Friend says, "BECAUSE OF YOUR WINDOW STICKERS!" pointing to them.

Then friend drags him out of his truck, kicks his ***... business-like. Gets back into our truck when light is green and drives around the guy. Self-policing at its finest. Friend never said a word. I just kinda laughed because "offending" truck driver had all kinds of "Bad boyz" type stickers... tough guy.
 
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