Hmm...I'll stop with the insults. However, you may like to
ponder upon the irony of using violence, whether physical or
verbal, to achieve peace and freedom.
Violence begets violence. Respect people a little more, and
perhaps your freedom and peace will not come at the price of
depriving others of the same. The notion that freedoms have to be
bought with violence is but an illusion. Gandhi didn't need no
violence.
On topic, I'd like to say that vulgarities are a form of verbal
violence that robs their recipients of the necessary respect they
deserve.
It may be ironic, but the life is full of contradictions ; ).
The reason Gandhi (in his later days) didn't need violence was
because the British had a sense of fair play. He was the exception,
not the rule. Generally throughout history, the peaceful,
non-violent groups get wiped out. Look at the Jews at Masada
against the Romans, for one. If you are depending on your
opponent's sense of humanity in order to win, you have already
lost.
If we look at it from an evolutionary/game theory point of view,
if everybody was non-violent, then the first person to be violent
would gain tremendous advantage, because there would be no one to
stop him. Thus, more people would 'convert' to be violent, until a
certain equilibrium is reached where it is equally advantageous to
be violent or non-violent.
I say again, read your history. Freedom isn't free. It is bought
with the blood of those who are willing to die for others; even
those who look down on them. The greatest, freest, civilisations
have roads paved with blood. The very fact that you are alive today
is because your ancestors have fought and killed other humans for
the right to live.
Vulgarities are far more than what you classify them as.
Vulgarities may be used as verbal violence, but they are also used
to bond, to create a sense of camaderie, to identify a group. I may
call my friend a fucker, but does it necessary rob him of respect?
Not at all. To classify them as crude, blunt tools is in fact
vulgar :). Besides, not everybody deserves respect by virtue of the
fact that they are human. Respect has to be earned, regardless of
whether you are a street bum or King of the World. More to the
point of vulgarity in the SAF, I don't care if my soldier doesn't
like me calling him a fucker if doing so jolts him into action and
saves the lives of himself and his mates. At least he is alive to
complain about it.