Will to Make Others Malleable

Bavand Behpour

1.
Vulgar is you. Vulgar is a subcategory of nonsense. There is a hierarchy for the nonsense. Among us, nonsense has attained such a degree so as to require a philosophy of its own, hard work is needed for capturing its ‘depth’ and ‘intensity’. One category of nonsense is exhortative nonsense. For instance, the principle indicating that one should not talk nonsense is an exhortative nonsense. Avoiding nonsense is not a moral obligation. They advise it so that others avoid pressing others. Every saying exerts a pressure on the audience. One who speaks nonsense does not accept the repercussions of pressing others. One who nobody answers back talks nonsense. One who calls others vulgar, presses others one-sidedly. Vulgar is you who press others.
2.
Vulgarity is a term akin to ‘sin’, ‘mistake’ and ‘crime’ yet more vulgar than all the three. Vulgar is that whose example is never presented. It resembles the term ‘rape’ which is not used by our press and is replaced by the term ‘satanic and unchaste’ acts. Like rape, it is an act which is unchaste to even think. To describe vulgarity is to indulge in it. One can only speak of vulgarity with confidence when one is not familiar with it; when one is so familiar with other things that one needs not to know what vulgarity is. There is no clear-cut definition for vulgarity: it does not qualify as sin; it is inferior to it and more persistent. It does not happen once; it is a kind of continuity. It is not a crime, but it is a kind of transgression: to transgress the borders of sublime culture. And therefore it is not a mistake. It does not enjoy the innocence of mistake: it is closer to sin since there is something metaphysical about it: it is the opposite of the sublime.
4.
Nonsense words are easily defined in meaningless semantic systems. It is a mistake to try to scientifically define the subcategories of nonsense. For instance, vulgarity as nonsense can be defined as follows: an adjective for describing a way of life and its manifestations, including cultural products, preventing man from development and sublimation.
5.
Vulgarity can be defined with the terms development and sublimation, with whatever has a hierarchical pyramidal structure, something that has a bottom which is larger than the top: it is best seen in towers and memorials. The bottom of the tower is vulgar, the top eminent.
6.
Vulgar is not just ineffective or bad. Hatred towards vulgarity does not result from its ineffectiveness. And it is not because of its unpopularity. Quite the contrary. It is because of its harmfulness. Harmful to what?
7.
Vulgarity is stagnation. It is to remain in a situation that is harmful to the sublimation of society and man. Is there anyone who wants to be degraded? And by that, I mean not in the voluntary aspects of his life but its manifestations?
8.
In order to correct others we correct their manifestations. Once the manifestations are corrected we look deeper to find more.
9.
Straightforward statements, such as the following, are boring: there is no vulgar way of living; there are only bad ways of life judged with regards to a particular purpose postulated for it.
10.
There is only one vulgar thing in the world: the attempt to make others malleable, to condemn them to the lower level of the pyramid. Vulgar is you who press others.