Words

What if words had no power? 
What if one word were not any more powerful or offensive than another? 
I teach at the local high school and though we have a profanity rule, when I walk down the halls, I hear a slew of filthy words that roll right off the tongue of 80% of our students.  This is in their normal conversation.  (Now, in my own classroom, I have rules and they are enforced and you will rarely hear such language in my little corner of the world.  There are consquences.)  Most kids say their parents talk that way, and I believe that is true for maybe 50% of them.  But, what if a profane word had no shock value?  Would they still use it? 
What if a racial slur had no more power than any other word?  People would not be able to be offended, because the words had no power. 
What about words we use to describe someone's apperance?  If they had no power, could we describe someone or something? We would no longer hurt any one, but couldn't praise them either. 
Why do we give some words more power then others?
What about perfectly good words that we no longer use because of the 'meaning' they now have?  I call them 'good words gone bad.'
And lastly, who decides which words have power?  Me, maybe; society, definitely; you?

Just something I've been thinking about.