ON ABUSING...

One of the most irritating things about verbally abusing people in the 21st century is the fact that they can’t even define what you said. Just because you verbally abused them, you gave them an ‘abuse’, which does not make any sense. It is a ‘Curse’ that you would probably have given them, but people can no longer associate abusing with any form of a curse; and there are just abuses and nothing else. Today curses are but random gibberish words that are found in Harry Potter like books.
Speaking of curses, the curses used in the world today are seriously outdated. The entire English Cursing Industry is being dominated by a few players- the perfect example of literal oligopoly. To briefly explain, all the curses the world uses today are words that begin with ‘F’, gender-specific words beginning with ‘B’ and a triplet with the initials ‘SOB’. Apart from these undoubtedly bad words, it is quite hard to come across any others that are used in similar contexts. What is even more interesting is the fact that these four pillars of the cursing industry are often used in collaboration- like joint ventures- to bring about a greater effect, like the notorious ‘F’ is converted into a verb and used before the ‘B’s.
But I don’t know why I am explaining the mechanisms of the curses- I am writing an entry about why I hate it. Don’t mind me, I tend to get distracted.
Coming back, the reason I hate these curses is that they fail to achieve the purpose for which they were created. I mean, when was the last time you felt genuinely hurt when someone called you an ‘F-ing B’? If I was to speak from my experience, I’d say I cried to that when I was in the fifth grade, and I was being picked on by the tenth graders (I still hate them, and I’d say that they are bigger F-ing Bs than me, but I digress). Or does ‘SOB’ make you feel pathetic about who you are? Of course not, not anymore at least. Which is the reason these curses do not work anymore- no one feels verbally abused when they are cursed by these words!
What has most probably happened to reduce the potency of these words is as follows. Their demand went up to new heights in the 21st century, as the number of people who started behaving like F-ing Bs stared increasing (there are many important reasons to this increase as well, though the foremost worth mentioning would be George Bush’s presidency, and irritating tenth graders), and in order to counter the growth of F-ing Bs, the words “You are an F-ing B!” started being used all too frequently. The entire population of F-ing Bs got a bit too used to listening to these words and became immune to them.
Also what happened simultaneously was that due to the rising demand in the need for those words, and the rise in the frequency of their usage led to a decline in the art of delivering them. There is a certain way to deliver those words- one has to spit them out, but without any saliva (in case of expression of real hate for the receiver of the words, saliva maybe appreciated, but only after the delivery of the words themselves). The frequency of usage ensured that the user had no time to implement the art, and delivered just words, instead of real curses, which they were meant to be.
So, what we need to do today is redefine the way we verbally abuse people- so that bad words are not just bad words, but actual curses returned to their former glory. It will be a tedious process, requiring grit, resolve, determination, international cooperation and a reduction in the consumption of chewing gum (because chewing gum increases the saliva content of the mouth, thus making it harder to spit without egesting saliva). It may require the world to create new curses, or simply rediscover the art in delivering the existing ones, but they both are noteworthy tasks.
I pray that we may find its faults, so that we may all be able to verbally abuse our alarm clocks and early mornings in a better way.