 Members of western society in 1996 are _________ expletives compared to members of western society from three decades prior.
Maledict oratory The high costs of low language. Blasphemy would be closer to it. Thirty years earlier, almost to the week, Tynan was interviewed on BBC television in his capacity as literary director of Britain's National Theater and asked if he would allow the theater to present a play in which sex took place on stage. "I think there are very few rational people in this world to whom the word '[expletive]' is particularly diabolical or revolting or totally forbidden." Within 24 hours, resolutions had been introduced in the House of Commons calling for his prosecution on charges of obscenity, for his removal as a theater official, and for censure of the network for allowing an obscene word to go out on the airwaves. Tynan escaped punishment, but he acquired a public reputation for tastelessness that he carried for the rest his life. To much of ordinary Britain, he became the man who had said "[expletive]" on the BBC. "It's live television," NBC Vice President Ed Markey said, rationalizing the outbursts. Swearing isn't the only public act that Western civilization condones today but didn't 30 years ago. Twenty years ago, he would have said, "We're in big trouble." Societal tolerance of profanity requires us to increase our dosage as time goes on. By the time they have reached the end of the line of children, they have tossed off a whole catalog of obscenities I did not even hear until I was well into adolescence, let alone use in casual conversation on a public street.
 less offended by
 more offended by  more creative in their use of  less offended by  less creative in their use of