In 1972, comedian George Carlin famously cited “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” which included the F-word along with other vulgar language. Were he alive today, Carlin, who viewed such restrictions as a curtailment of First Amendment rights, would be happy that virtually all of these words now can be uttered in the public square –  if not on TV, then certainly on cable stations, in movie theaters and in other venues. 

The question I wish to raise here is whether this constitutes progress.

Carlin did not realize it at the time but, by 1972, America was already transitioning from Doris Day and “Pillow Talk” to Linda Lovelace and “Deep Throat.” The decade of the ‘60s saw the culture go into sexual overdrive, as Playboy met Woodstock. Ever since, for better or worse, the culture has been getting increasingly lewd and crude. I am talking mainstream here, not some fringe element.  

Just a few examples: 

• The New York Times recently ran a full-page ad for the movie “Fed Up” consisting mostly of the letters F and U.

• Beyoncé, who has performed at the White House (on the First Lady’s birthday) and opened this year’s Grammy Awards show, recently was seen in a video for her song  “Partition,” according to one culture critic, “wearing a bedazzled thong and not much else, as she sings about ejaculate landing on her dress after performing oral sex in the back of a limo.” 

• Then there was Miley Cyrus at last year’s MTV Video Music Awards, watched by millions of teenagers, engaging in what one Times critic described as “miming coitus with Robin Thicke and rump-shaking among dancing bears,” which represented merely the “creative choices” of an “artist.” Her “Bangerz Tour,” which came to Scottrade Center in August, was also shown on KSDK-TV (Channel 5) in July in the prime time slot once occupied by Ed Sullivan. 

• Last year’s Oscar-nominated film “The Wolf of Wall Street,” directed by the iconic Martin Scorsese, broke the F-bomb record with the word voiced more than 500 times. It easily outdistanced another of last year’s Oscar best movie contenders, “Dallas Buyers 

Club,” which had only 100 or so utterances.  

I am all for civil liberties and freedom of expression. I have always favored erring on the side of maximizing speech rather than minimizing it. The best formula is censure, not censor; that is, contest speech you do not like with other speech. So allow me to express criticism of the turn our culture has taken. 

First, it is one thing to tolerate obscenity. It is something else to celebrate it and call it art. Andy Warhol said, “Art is whatever you can get away with.” If so, then the bar for being an artist has been set really, really low. One would hope we would have higher standards if you wish to be taken seriously and, especially, if you want to qualify for tax support from the National Endowment for the Arts.   

Second, I would have more respect for the folks who invoke the First Amendment if these same folks were not the very ones who often support banning the speech of others. 

For example, a few years back, feminists pressured the University of Missouri-St. Louis chancellor to remove a fraternity’s sign in the quad advertising a “sexy legs contest” featuring women in bikinis. That was considered “offensive,” even though it is OK for campus groups to sponsor racy productions of “The Vagina Monologues,” titillating drag queen shows, and rock bands lip-synching profanities, where, if you dare protest, you are dismissed as prudish or worse. 

Likewise, the Danish cartoonist who drew the prophet Muhammed with a bomb in his turban was accused of promoting Islamophobia by many cultural elites, the same ones who came to the defense of the artist who painted a crucifix in a bottle of urine, lecturing offended Catholics that “art is supposed to provoke.” Let’s have a little more consistency in defending free speech, please.

Third, we should try to protect children from trashy stuff, though granted it is becoming harder in the age of the Internet. What is “trashy”? As Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously said in a 1964 pornography case, “I cannot define it, but I know it when I see it.” 

Most of us understand the rough parameters that define good taste for children, as opposed to that which encourages potty-mouth behavior. We have no problem protecting kids these days from bullying – we are being hammered by the constant anti-bullying messages sent by the culture – so why are we not sending similar messages fighting back against lascivious music lyrics and other toxic stimuli children are exposed to?   

Finally, as the late Senator Daniel Moynihan said, “we are defining deviancy down” and losing our capacity for shame and civility. Did someone say Jerry Springer and Maury Povich? How about the raunchy Hardees TV commercials for Texas barbecue Thickburgers that are thinly disguised porn? 

There is a Hebrew word that applies here: tznius (modesty or decorum). We can be nonjudgmental to a fault (e.g., ubiquitous reality TV shows and buttcrack-revealing jeans), although a few things, such as posting the Ten Commandments in schools and government buildings, do raise eyebrows and ire. 

If you think that repeatedly uttering the F-word in a public space represents some sort of unleashing of creative energy and a validation of  “doing your own thing,” go right ahead. I just think that we all have some obligation to elevate the discourse, not bring it down to the level of the gutter. 

I know, silly me.

By Marty Rochester

Curators’ Teaching Professor of Political Science at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, is author of 10 books on international and American politics, the latest of which is “U.S. Foreign Policy in the 21st Century: Gulliver’s Travails.”  In addition to teaching courses in international politics, international organization and law, and U.S. foreign policy, he has served as Chairperson of the Political Science Dept. at UM-St. Louis.