Bashed
I grew up in the East End of London, the original home of the Cray twins, Billy the Screwdriver, and Two Blades Harry.
Before I transferred to the sophistication of the public (private) school system, I was deeply immersed in comprehensive school system.
Despite schooling with the rich and now famous, I still ran with my “boyz” from my neighbourhood, and it is fair to say that we learned to have our wits about us.
It is also fair to say then that I saw and experienced violence in many guises in my childhood, and it took less and less to shock me as I grew older.
I have spent thirty four years mastering violence. I no longer fear it. I have been taught violence and taught it to others. I have used violence to control my anger and out of frustration. I have used violence in self defence and in the defence of others.
I do not glorify violence, but there are situations where I would consider it to be a last resort.
My knowledge of violent ways does not make me a man of violence. I am in constant control of my propensity for violence. My violent knowledge does not make me a violent man.
It is with this background, that I am disappointed in the language associated with violence in Australia.
I hear the phrases from others and in the media like “I bashed him”, “He was bashed”, and “Punch on” like they are words from a child.
These are violent acts being trivialised in a child’s language.
If a person in going to impose their physical dominance over another human being, then this act should be described in its true nature.
It concerns me that by using this child-like language, the true horrors of these acts are masked.
Grievous Bodily Harm (GBH), Actual Bodily Harm (ABH), Assault and Battery, Attacked, Beaten up, these are all adult words that adequately describe the physical assault upon another human.
Even the more vulgar language associated with these acts more accurately describes it barbaric nature. To “kick the shit out of someone”, to “fuck someone up”, to “break someone’s face” to “mess someone up”: all these phrases are appropriately vulgar in nature to reflect the aggression of the act.
I believe that the trivial depiction of violence through language in Australia, makes its existence more tolerable in society.
If your Australian friend “bashed” someone, you are likely to accept that action with a lighter heart than if they “beat the living daylights” out of someone.
The power of words are often underestimated, and this is never more so demonstrated that in the language of violence in Australia.
