Outrageous. A term used to define things that are seen as shocking and extravagant or exceeding limits to which the greater percentage of the society might see as reasonable, moral or sane. Ideas of what exactly is outrageous can also be dependent on the age, cultural, traditional, and or religious backgrounds of the individual involved. What is outrageous to an elder in his eighties most times ain't seen the same in the eyes of teenagers of the 21st century, rather, could actually be taken on the shoulders as normal and cool. Same example applies between a Christian and a Muslim, an African from rural Nigeria and an American from one of the most urban enclaves of the US.
In the grand scheme of things, it is hard and almost impossible to actually find a topic that is outrageous to all age groups, religions, cultures, nationalities, etc. people have always from the dawn of time maintained different views about different subjects which is one of the driving forces of conflicts. Abstract concepts and ideologies that in the very thought of them shouldn’t cause much of a fight have caused some of the bloodiest wars in history. It really just boils down to what people find as outrageous or not.
I did say it was hard to find a topic that was universally outrageous at the moment but I didn’t say it was impossible. The concept of what’s outrageous or not also has a lot to do with the timing. For example, I remember vividly as a young child that was in the early 2000s in Nigeria, the idea of adding the word “fuck” to every sentence, particularly found more in the American dialects of English and a bit lesser but still very much also there in some British dialects, was pretty quite outrageous to the Nigerian ear who considered ‘fuck’ as only a synonym for sex and not a slang.
As a matter of fact, sex as a topic being openly discussed in the African society is still very much seen as a taboo due to some sociocultural and religious misconceptions about sex in the mundane African society as of then. But time never remains frozen so fast forward to now, in the 2020s the word ‘fuck’ just as in most American dialects of English has been quite prevalent in some Nigerian ones too, particularly in the Urban ones spoken by most educated young Nigerians in some urban enclaves in Nigeria such as Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, etc.
With that Knowledge, sex being discussed publicly is increasingly being seen as normal rather than a taboo as it was seen as some few years ago. Timing was a very important factor when it came to what was perceived to be outrageous or not. There was a time in the US when interracial marriages were seen as taboo as the racial tensions in America were that hot, that white supremacists felt it sour and unnatural for a white woman to be married to a black man even if some time during slavery, there were such copulations. Fast forward to now and the issue is no longer much of a big deal. A lot of things have changed.
A very outrageous community right now that I would say can qualify for a term of universally outrageous is the LGBTQ community. LGBTQ standing for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Queer Community. As outrageous as sex is to some societies, this group takes the bulls by the horns to fight for the rights of non-heterosexual people who have for a long time have been denied the rights to their own sexual compasses. The entire concept has been outrageous right from the get go and still is, that it would take a lot of considerable time for people to accept the plight of these folks.
People have always had different views and ideas of how certain things should be and these ideas at a lot of times clash and create different levels of conflicts. The cold war is one of such conflicts. The cold war was a period of ideological war between the United States and its respective allies also called the Western Bloc and the Eastern bloc which comprised the USSR, China and a host of others. Studying the events of the cold war would enlighten us just how far the idea of what’s outrageous or not can take us.
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