Terry Mitchell

The Absurdity of Fighting Words



Posted: Tuesday, June 09, 2009

by Terry Mitchell
http://commenterry.blogs.com

Strangely enough, the laws of the United States government and those of many states recognize the concept of "fighting words." Apparently, some words, phrases, names, etc. are considered so vile and provocative that uttering them to someone gives that person at least partial justification to physically attack you. How absurd!

Words, no matter how awful or hateful, are just words. They have no intrinsic power. They cannot hurt anyone unless he or she allows them to. Besides, humans are not animals that are guided solely by instinct. People are not robots, pre-programmed to always react in a certain way to a given set of circumstances. They have brains which provide them with the ability to think.

Therefore, knee-jerk reactions notwithstanding, there is no such thing as an automatic human response to anything.  Mature men and women are expected to approach life's everyday quandaries with logic and reason. They must be in control of their actions at all times – no matter what. That means the whole notion of fighting words is a complete fallacy.

Terry Mitchell is a software engineer, freelance writer, amateur political analyst, and blogger from Virginia, USA. He posts a least one article a day to his blog - http://commenterry.blogs.com - on subjects such as current events, politics, technology, society and culture, religion, health and well-being, self improvement, personal finance, trivia, and sports.

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