Putin creates giant swear jar

We complain about the government sticking its nose where it doesn’t belong here in the United States and about it trying to control individual behavior for everything from eating to personal habits. At times, the government does seem a bit intrusive in our lives. But it’s nothing compared to what Vladimir Putin is up to in Russia.

Apparently missing his days at the KGB, Putin has put Russia into a retro movement to the bad old days of the Cold War, and with the Ukraine crisis he’s creating a situation that could open the door for another hot war. Along the way, Putin has been placing tighter restrictions on Russians themselves and generally having the government intrude in their lives more —although government intrusion isn’t anything new for them.

Now, according reports from the BBC, Putin and his parliament not only are trying to control what people say but how they say it. Or, more precisely, control the words they use —specifically curse words. No &#@$.

Putin has signed a law banning profanity as of July 1. The government will not allow profanity in movies, music and other public displays art and cultural events; copies of movies, CDs and books with profanity will be sold only in labeled, sealed packages; profanity will get businesses fined $1,400 and license suspensions; and people will be fined $70 for swearing in public (public officials will be fined $40).

A panel of “experts” will decide what is profanity and what constitutes a public display. I imagine their expert panels will consist of linguists who know and understand the nuances and multiple meanings of words that could be construed as profanity. Or, they could just get Quentin Tarantino, Oliver Stone and any number of comics and rappers who never met a profanity they didn’t use. After The Wolf of Wall Street with its record use of the F-bomb, Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio could assist, too.

Some may think this sounds like a good idea, especially where movies are concerned. As someone who’s been known to utter a swear word or two, ... or three or four (I’m still in the newspaper business, after all), even I get tired of hearing an unending string of cursing and expletives in movies, no matter how “realistic” it makes the dialogue. After a bit, it just gets tiresome and redundant. I admit I occasionally find it’s use funny, and it’s fine for establishing a character, or even for a quick shock value or a surprising moment of humor, but move on and use better writing skills.

On the surface you might wonder what’s wrong with outlawing profanity, or fining someone for swearing. In this country, you can be arrested and fined for cursing, too, because it’s often part of disorderly conduct. Cursing even can prompt a disorderly conduct charge under some circumstances. Yet folks still can cuss as long as they’re not too loud or rude about it, and aren’t doing it in earshot of children or others who don’t want to hear it.

But it’s control, not clean language, that Putin and company want, and the idea of a language police is just another means of doing that. While the new Russian law is aimed at media and entertainment, it could be applied to individuals as the country edges back to the way it was in the Soviet Union.

They’re really not trying to create a family-friendly country where no one curses and no one hears foul language. They want to restrict freedom of speech, to put “friendly” controls on what people say, and in turn prohibit the entry of anything into Russia that might contain forbidden words. Facebook, Twitter and other social media come to mind; if people have postings with profanity, those wouldn’t be allowed in Russia, and thus the platforms could be officially banned.

Considering the role social media played in Egypt, Libya and other nations with political upheavals, there can be no doubt Putin would look for a way to silence it in Russia. A profanity law could give them the switch needed to shut it down, and silence the people as well.

Distasteful as profanity may be for some folks, at least Americans still can swear without fear of government reprisal; colorful language still can be part of the arts (although toning it down a bit wouldn’t hurt); and we don’t have language police and profanity panels deciding what words can be used and which ones can’t.

You can rest assured, if the federal government ever thinks of such a thing, folks will have a few choice words in response.