Calling a Foul a Foul

[Guest guest]

On 11 Apr 1999, Srila Dasa wrote:

 

> There's no doubt Madhava Ghosh offers a rich contribution to this

conference,

> and I myself generally look forward to what he posts.

> However, when anyone makes a foul, they should be called on it. Let's admit

> it, and we can move on. Simple enough point.

 

 

 

This is precisely where you should have left this inane subject many, many

comments ago. But you had to keep going and going with it.

[Guest guest]

>

>

> If it's a foul, then it's foul. If it's such small stuff, then admit it, let

> it go and move on. Otherwise, as much as you try to defend it means it's a

> problem for you. So, if it's a problem, let's resolve it here and now.

>

> What limits do you want to set? Where you draw the line? You tell me.

>

> Srila dasa

 

Two things.

 

One, as a soccer coach, I know that some terms in any given society are

loaded

with negative baggage and the use of such terms in a soccer game will draw a

warning from a ref or even a yellow card. As a matter of fact, I spent a

month

on Disiplinery Restrictions in high school for punctuating an appeal to a ref's

decision with a loud "Jesus Christ, ref!" In the context, it was not used as

a

theological appeal to the ref for a Christlike grant of mercy for my alleged

infringement on the 10 yard cushion meant to be given the other team on an

indirect kick. Anyway, yes, use of that term is a foul. Accepted.

 

So sorry for crossing that line, I will attempt to be civil (down tongue,

down I

say).

 

The interesting thing is that what is crossing the line in one culture is not

the

same in another. For instance, I am told that the a word for the church, a

form

of tabernacle, is the worst possible thing to say in French Canada, although

a

literal translation in English has no cultural baggage at all.

 

It is interesting that in the US, most bad words have to do with bodily

functions. Does this mean as a asociety we are anal retentive?

 

Secondly, what would the proper term be to use in this conerence for the type

of

activity that prompted the use of the original term?