
Ruben reported that Phil Robertson claimed that the producers and editors of Duck Dynasty have manipulated the show to “intensify the language and make the family appear more profane and unruly than they really are.” They inserted fake beeps to appear to bleep out profanity when there was none. Sugar! What the frick? It’s bad enough that editors bleep out the profanity and occasionally bleep out what’s not profanity. Now they insert fake bleeps? H-E double hockey sticks! Earlier, Phil said that the editors deleted the name of Jesus that the family uses in their prayers. It just confirms what many of us believe; that the show is not really a reality show. Who’d a thunk? And the Robertsons are not really unruly? Next, I suppose, they’ll tell us that they actually shampoo their beards. Gosh oh BLEEP! Heavens to BLEEP.
There was a time when I used a lot of profanity. I served in the military as an infantry officer, and profanity was a staple of military life. Most conversations in Vietnam during the war would have been considerably shorter if every other word was not a cuss word. I consider myself a black belt in profanity. I didn’t use it around my children or around women. I do believe that there are situations when profanity is appropriate – not many. Sometimes it is the only way to get someone’s attention. When I retired from the Army, I retired my use of profanity. Lately it has crept back into my conversation.
It would be easy to say never use profanity but that is not realistic. I am a writer and I can’t imagine writing dialogue for characters in which no character cusses. It isn’t real. There are some professions where profanity is appropriate.
I wrote about the use of profanity in my book, Leadership for New Managers: Book Two, http://smashwords.com/b/30090.