Standing in line at the Exxon Express Mart Store thing and saw these cards on the counter yesterday. (Click to enlarge.) Written on the back were these words to live by:“...and the time you spend will be worth your while.”
You mean the time I still have left after smoking 10 packs a day for 30 years. Yeah, I just bet I can get some cool gear. A t-shirt, maybe a hat? What about thinking outside the voice box. A CD collection of classic books read by famous smokers, like Denis Leary or Eddie Van Halen. (For the older crowd, we’d try and figure out a way to bring back The Duke for this.) Wait, what if you save up enough UPCs, then you can get a Rascal™ with an oxygen tank. You know, so your wife doesn’t have to carry that old one around anymore. It could even come in the color of your favorite Philip Morris brand. Better get started, you have proofs of purchase to collect.
15 comments:
I don't know if you've had the pleasure, but cigarette advertising is sometimes weird and you cnstantly have to step out of your comfort zone. Then again, I was a casual smoker untl last year where I noticed that if you're surfing, that's the last place you want to be short of breath :D. As for premiums, promotions and mailers from tobacco co, trust me they want to snag anyone possible though I can admit I've yet to see ultra tasteless marketing directives to target children or homeless. Then again, I'm not in marketing, don't work directly at those companies, and still have a soul that's not for sale.
Standing in line at Exxon is just as detrimental to one's health as smoking, if not more...and I'm not talking about oil either.
Did you see the official studies which stated that urban jogging is the equivalent of a pack or more per day? I think it might've been two packs, actually. Seems, as Willie Nelson likes to point out, stress would be the source issue, no doubt. I mention him since he's one of the few wise men we have around anymore...everyone else is too busy trying to appear to be intelligent and successful, too busy projecting guilt and ignorance to bother to actually look around, and by that I don't mean looking around to find yet another scapegoat (Bush, for instance, or fatty foods, oxygen, carbon) to blame instead of actually doing something productive.
Likewise, I've noticed that most who scapegoat smoking tend to overlook their own issues (ha, which is why they scapegoat to begin)...anyone would be able to compile a nice list of their own nasty habits and addictions they might not recognize all the time, many of which are far more destructive to the general population than smoking could ever be.
Oh I have issues c/w. Who doesn’t. But scapegoating? Hmmm. Tough sell. Usually refers to someone or something innocuous, no? After all, Philip Morris is the one making the money here, not me. There's nowhere else to point the finger.
Jogging, well, it's worse on the knees than the lungs, so that's why I don’t do it.
Yeah, I read that book too about smoking reducing stress. But last time I looked, it wasn't really medically sound, (doctors endorsing them in ads 50 years ago notwithstanding).
Besides, the smokers around me for years have more than had it their way. Cool thing about the issues I have is that the people around me never got exposed to them. Especially when I walk into a bar or outside for a breath of fresh air, only to run into ... smokers on their break. Ironic in an Alanis sorta way.
Like the copy in the piece above which points out how much PM values their desire to sell you merch more than they care about your health.
But I could be wrong.
;-p
I understand your points, but your (and all people's) issues (internal or otherwise) do in fact have more of an effect than second-hand or first-hand smoke. I think the issues of which I speak are far more ever-present and detrimental to the individual as well as the collective. The magazine rack (hence the term) at the grocer or Exxon petrol station is more dangerous...the bill-board, etc.
My point isn't just in defense of smoking tobacco, which is in fact ancient (older than P.M. and any other cigarette company). Jogging too has benefits, and they too go way back. There are those who smoked several packs a day for decades and lived to best 100 years. There are those who do not. There are those who jog and drop dead while doing so, or are hurt by doing so in general...and those who only benefit from jogging. Such is life. To attempt to legislate any of it is preposterous and naive in the grand scheme of things imho. To watch propaganda used as a means to do actually work is saddening...cigs or porn or music, whatever it might be, is merely a scapegoat for a scared, confused society looking for answers and respite. Why do protesters blame "Bush" for everything when the facts state that both parties are involved? Because the facts state that ALL parties were/are involved, meaning you and me just the same.
Which brings me to exactly what I stated earlier: scapegoating is used as a defense mechanism against humility in our culture, against any conflict or overstanding that might lead to new ideas and personal/collective growth, because it usually isn't all that comfortable.
To this date doctors are "practicing" and any scientist worth his salt knows no one knows anything, they just do their best.
So your arguments here are basically the tried and true positions of non-smokers or non-anything (depending on the respective scapegoat). As long as it is external to you and your daily perception of this Life thing, placing blame and ire on x is a pretty good deal, feels good for a little while. Hence the reason(s) these tactics are ancient.
Your smoker friends have, from your perspective, had it their way for so long because there must be an exact polar opposite to the equation in order for this to work (which is why cigs represent "cool" in film and other mediums). Both sides have to be played for that to work at all...and as you can see it works quite well. Whatever the two sides may be, legislating for the benefit or exclusion of one or another is an easy road to take so long as it doesn't have to do with the barring of something you enjoy or need, or even want for that matter. But, as we all know thanks to history and common sense, someday your favorite things will be on the block if you joyously and sadistically applaud the violation of another's rights, just because they are not you. Picking on those who live differently, or more importantly perceive/believe differently, is a bullying tactic...another defense mechanism for those who cannot deal with ultimate reality. That's really why I wanted to comment, although I've felt this way since my teens.
To divide n conquer all you have to do is offer up sides to any issue (food, smoking, SUV's, greenery), get a few good mascots, and get to arguing. The mascots not only spur the so-called debate, they plant the questions and answers (the precise language to be used) into each respective team's members, as it turns out. No one wants their team to lose, or to admit they don't know much of anything about the subject matter, so this cycle is easily replicated and used time and time again. Look around for a day or two and see if you notice it, maybe? It's the story of the emperor's new clothes, in fact...the Nix-On (nothing on).
So yeah, I think there are far more pressing matters to humanity right now than smoking, frito pies, noise ordinances, jogging and so on. Depends on whether or not you see what is actually on the end of your fork (yet), after all.
Great blog and conversation - much appreciated.
Thanks. Mi blog, su blog.
Regardless of the cig ads and stuff I post from time to time, (that's the nature of this blog for the most part–shit that pops out in some way, shape or form that seems to contradict itself in the form of brands/ads), you seem to be making the arguement for me that this is external, that everything I mention is because of something I come across at work occasionally and perhaps through media messages. (It’s also apples and oranges to say the effects of someone's personal issues do more harm than the physical effects of smoking.)
But let me get more specific because that's what this is about, not general societal issues, Bush, etc. Certainly for me, it's not a tried-and-true PC adopt-an-issue response. It's more personal and isn’t something I will ever change my mind about.
My family all were smokers from when I was born. Both parents, and later, my teen bros and sister who started, in no small part I imagine from peer pressure and being exposed to it at home. I was living that for 20+ years until I left home. (Even still, you get exposed to it and then your kids do when you go back.)
It physically makes me tired to be around a smoker, wherein my day literally gets cut by three or four hours and my eyes get irritated. With the exception of watching The View, nothing else does that. (And as readers here know by my 3:02 am posts, I stay up pretty late–I need all the hours in the day I can get.)
I also worked in agencies with no windows and heavy smokers in closed conference room brainstorm sessions. Lots of them. There, you get that patronizing move that smokers do when they’re next to you and they wave the smoke away like they're doing you a favor–and you’re in a closed room no less.
So to imply that I'm possibly just being too PC is a little disingenuous when I know the reality of what I was exposed to. Secondhand smoke, yeah, I got all the stats. I lived them. As a kid, I pretty much had no choice. What kid does, because no 5-year old has the awareness to emancipate themself and run off.
I would agree that society plays a role in how the culture of smoking influences so many early on. Tobacco, alcohol and the sugar industries all count on this: how do we get our product into the hands of the early adopters. Word of mouth, literally.
Sounds though like you may smoke and feel threatened someone is possibly taking away your right? Not sure. But I all I can say is while you have the right to smoke, I have the right not to be around it.
And that's the terrain we currently find ourselves in.
;-p
Thanks!
Well, one of the confusions here is that I'm only defending smoking as a right, when I'm defending any individual right (including those I can't think of right now). I love your blog and certainly do not think you do this lightly or for only external purposes. Anything but, in fact.
Of course, it would be considered PC but that wasn't on my mind so much as the hundreds of other issues that do in fact make you and I tired (whether or not we smoke) and do in fact seek to influence our decisions in an incremental fashion. We dealt with these obesity and smoking arguments early in Austin, and anyone who did look into it found that even the studies contradict one another, and so does common sense. Therefore, each individual should decide for themselves, and that doesn't require legislation or propaganda campaigns, much less scapegoating a segment of society. All such control mechanisms are worked up slowly (the ol' boiling of the frog routine)...so it may start with something small like a "sin" tax but end up being People (race, color, religion, etc, as seen throughout history).
With PC, more specifically, all it takes is an authority figure to make a claim (no evidence is necessary, it seems) and create sides -- one that does partake of whatever the "sin" is and one that does not. Smoking just happens to be what you posted about, and one of the current focal points of Control. Remove the word "smoking" and replace with any word of your choice. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to focus on smoking and omit the more pervasive pollutants. Nor does it make sense to legislate or even nudge a society to adopt a certain lifestyle over another, because they prefer it. My rights have been violated since day one on this planet and smoking is one of the least of those violated; however, what smoking represents is why I get worried. The people who adopt ideologies because authority figures preach their virtues without question worry me, and I think it's valid in this day and age or any.
I too have had family lost to disease, and I sympathize and understand your position (I'm not addressing this as an affront to you personally) At times I have smoked in my life, at others not so much. Just depends, since I make the decision to do so each time. I also have allergies in which I'm allergic to an unbelievable number of things in the environment...there are those allergic to cologne, so I wonder how long it will be before we begin to call for a ban on all fragrances?
What it comes down to is this: we can choose to go where we go, do what we do, on our own accord. We don't have to go to a club where smoking might be, or any place. We can move our feet and choose a new spot, or ask nicely. Any number of remedies exist, but to force the rest of society to live a lifestyle they might consider boring or untoward, even hypocritical, is out of bounds entirely, a sure sign of a decadent society full of guilt, because they might be where you might be. Reminds me of other discriminatory acts that led to pogroms.
Makes for good politics, bread and circus.
The closed room, similarly, I repeat that there are many, many issues which outweigh the impact of smoking in a closed room...how about being in a country who makes its own reality, but that all depends on the masses? What to do when the masses are idle in their thinking and easily swayed into a mob mentality, scapegoating all the way whatever image they're given. Do they realize their will and attention are being diverted? Therefore, their thoughts and actions/or inactions do in fact affect us all on a much deeper, subconscious level, facilitating fascism worldwide if not addressed.
P.S. The "stats" on smoking contradict one another across the board, usually depending on who was paid the most I'd imagine. Remember, the numbers of the obesity "epidemic" were lies...and after a year or more of propaganda, this was admitted publicly. How many of other claims are lies? Many.
“...how about being in a country who makes its own reality, but that all depends on the masses?”
Yes, but I’m not dealing with that when I walk into a restaurant, bar or exterior of a corporate office lobby–I’m dealing with smokers.
I think in general people tend to control what they can in their immediate space.
“With PC, more specifically, all it takes is an authority figure to make a claim (no evidence is necessary, it seems) and create sides”
Oooh, don’t tell anyone I‘m an authority–far from it. Thing is I’m not claiming anything for anyone else. People can figure out stuff on their own fairly well. My rants notwithstanding, I’m pretty much a ‘to each his own’ kinda guy, and this is just my own experience.
As for tired, I really don’t have other factors that cause it, just that one, cough, cough.
;-p
Again, I see your point about having space for non-smokers...but, there should be equal space for smoking businesses...and the owners of each business should make that distinction, as should each individual who participates in said environment.
Again, however, I beg to differ that your/our only concern is something like smoking, or that it is paramount above all else. In fact, the ideas/words abound much more than smoke every could (it vanishes), and there are simply very few spaces in the modern world which are not overloading the senses (billboards, tv, radio, net, sporting and music events, parks, walkways...) Obviously, propaganda is virtually everywhere, and since it impacts the subconscious (not an opinion there)and manifests action in the conscious I think it bests smoking and drinking, video games or porn, in importance (as far as 'how do we get out of the mess of porridge we're in')...this is what I meant about the "magazines" being more dangerous than second-hand or first-hand smoke, or fatty foods, or whatever other concern is repeated via mainstream news outlets. Viruses (memes) are more dangerous than smoke, in other words.
It wasn't meant to be a dig at marketing, because I think through marketing we can get out of the mess we're in, through art/marketing/design/architecture/poetry/conversation, etc.
Bruce Lee would agree. So, in order to "escape" a propaganda matrix which uses the team routine, one must simply stop oneself from taking a side at the onset (to think/feel first, to will one's own will first) just long enough to see through the trap. Then things get really interesting, just as a sports match gets more interesting when you really don't mind who wins/loses in the end, but appreciate the experience throughout.
Awesome conversation. Thanks. This is what it's all about.
The smoking thing isn't really my main concern, it’s just one thing that happened to pop out at me. As for the deluge of media messaging being more dangerous, hafta disagree. Not when presented with something that in my case produces an immediate negative physical effect, whereas something like too many crappy banners ads, while lacking any educational value, get filed away in my head or ignored like so much other white noise.
And I think that’s the sound of my dead horse beaten.
;-p
Wow, I'd totally missed on this conversation. Great points made on either side. What I think might underly the smoking topic, it's the fad topic. There have always been non smokers and there have been various smokers. The interesting thing is to look at history and see how advertising, PC issues, politics in general etc have affected this debate. up to the 80's, smoking was hot shit (still seen as very cool). It was a major fad that will continue to endure. In the mid 90's we got a little something called truth and a full blown anti smoking movement. Stats were called, FAQS were made and we were constantly bombarded with a message to hate smoking and in various places this has actually been put to practice. IN a matter of years the tides changed from a pro smoker society to an anti smoker society and what I do have a problem with is the villainization of smokers.
I agree on the to each his own stance yet also think adecuate facilities should be provided to allow a smoke filled or a smoke free environment. In short, I believe people have the right to smoke and he right to not have to chew on someone else's emissions.
I have actually gone through a variety of smoker related phases. I was the son of two smokers, the nephew of a smoker, the grandson of smokers etc. This means I was exposed to a wide variety of "smoking agents" (as radical non smokers would have me believe they were). Did I get asthma or chronic colds? No. Did I feel the need to smoke? No. I actually was the reason my dad quit smoking cold turkey. They took me to a shrink and when I drew my family apart from my dad as he stood with his briefcase and surrounded by a shroud of smoke. He got the point, had his last cig and vowed never to smoke again and it took him 18 years to share another cigarette with my older brother who later became a cigar lover( to be honest, I think it's the strongest statement of love he ever did for me and in classic fashion, I ended up smoking eight years after he quit).
When I picked up my first cigarette some might say I was emulating my father, others might say it was my grandfather, personally I think it was the fact that I was a drunk teen with access to cigarettes that made me try it. First puff, cough cough. Second puff, cough, cough, barf... giggles... Third puff.... ahhhh the life. I then smoked for 9 years as casually as possible. I never bought cigarettes but in college you meet lots of people and a wide variety hate to smoke alone. So I smoked and I loved it. Every puff, every doughnut I succesfuly created. It was and still is delicious in a supremely twisted way. Cut through college and enter professional life. Too much work, too much shitty food, smoking and drinking like a bum. Enter stomach reflux to rue my days. Add to this being short breathed in a heavy surf session. And still I smoked. I was surrounded by people who smoked and caving in was easy and if I didn't have the pac I wasn't a chain smoker. If I did, bad move.
Exit my ex, enter my future wife. Enter an attitude of wanting to live longer and feel better. Exit cigarettes. Do I miss them? Hell yes, but I only have to see the balance to notice I'm way better off without them. The irony is that I had to arrive at a place where I could get free cigs to quit completely.
Now in my case I quit and I've felt a hell of a lot better. Less acid reflux, better oxigenation and generally feeling better. Now on the other side of the bubble. My great grandmother had 7 children. SHe worked like a mule. She had a shot of scotch every day of her life. By the end she was cutting down to 6 cigs a day because she was feeling it (Marlboro Red by he way). She passed away in her sleep at age 94. She was a smoker for over 80 years. She was a kind old lady, very well liked and took things chill and had good meals while working hard when she had to work and resting consistently.
My father passed away at age 55. He quit smoking when he was 38. He died of a brain tumor. He was ill tempered though well liked. An honest worker with a good reputation but had a shitty way of dealing with anger and stress. He worked all the time, stressed constantly and was a work oriented man.
Now seeing the above stats, logic would determine that excessive work, stress and poor eating habits are endlessly more dangerous than smoking and to be honest, I have to agree. Take a normal person and put them to work 15 hour work days and eat fast food 3 times a day and have someone smoke 12 cigarettes in a day (half a pack). Who do you think is going to look like shit?
Again, this is mere deduction and shabily performed at that, but it's what I've seen and learned. It's what I've lived and what I will gauge regarding personal experience.
As for scapegoating, US Society always seems to have a need to erect a new war to fight on. Drugs, poverty, homelessness, alcohol, AIDS, or IRAQ. All wars declared for the benefit of other people or to make someone feel good for themselves. New wars include the war on smoking, the war against global warming amongst others.
Now going back to the smoking issue. There's another detail to take into account, my great grandmother probably smoked better tobacco than my father. Less toxins, purer tobacco, probably more tar and nicotine, but less added BS. Same in regards to the food they both ate. Same in regards to their quality of life in every single sense of the word. To boot, you need to take into account the genetic factor that gave my great grandmother her longevity and how the same factor possibly cost my father his life. Will we also wage a war against Genes? Welll yes... Gattaca is not a random Dystopian future, it's something that seems to be quite possible and that frightens me a hell of a lot more than someone smoking a cigarette near me. Now... does that mean that I want to deal with someone else's smoke? Nope. And I think that's one of the pint MTLB wanted to make. There are tacit issues within this issue that go far beyond what normally is taken into consideration.
Now for a final issue, am I full of shit or did I just want to spend 15 minutes writing something that is more important to me than a translation that will get revised fifty times? You make the call. I've far exceeded the normal 2 cents I should contribute, but I can't help but agree that the convo is rather stimulating.
Cheers to both
Okay dead horse CPR. ;-p
Vices are WOM things. Go way back to when previous cultures ground up things to ferment to make primitive hooch. Back to the colonies who depended on tobacco for their economy. Certainly no mass media there to spread the word. Later sure, the trading post ad, but to quote the fictious inspirational lunacy of Hannibal Lector, “that is incidental. We covet what we see.” Everyday.
The first sip of beer a kid has was likely because his dad snuck it to him behind mom’s back or he was allowed to try a sip of wine when he was eight by grandpa during the holidays. Same with smoking. All the ads in the world may plant seeds, but word of mouth/trial is the gateway. Why, grandma taught me how to shoot up when I was nine, and I’ve been the better man for it ever since.
We can argue about how the media reinforces the messages that make it easier for the subconscious to want to try that first puff, but at the end of the day, doesn’t it come down to your friend going “C'mon, what, are you scared?” that has the most effect? Likewise, the Truth anti-smoking movement doesn’t hit home or have an affect until that person decides for themselves that they’re done smoking. (Same for PETA too.)
I was five when I tried my first and last cigarette cuz it burned the shit out of my lungs. You can say then, messaging had nothing to do with it. Oddly enough, you’d think the inverse would be true because at that time, cigarettes were still getting positive press and everyone smoked–anything. (Late 60s.)
As it is with any societal taboo, it was once acceptable. I go back to that because while it seems I’m being told let smokers have their way, I first would reiterate that collectively they’ve had their way for a long time, no?
Secondly, based on that logic, (assuming a smoker is in their private area away from me, both parties now happy), it’s okay for people to get wasted as long as they don’t bother me. But should it be okay for some nimrod to have 20 Jack and Cokes and then hit the road behind the wheel? I mean, after all, I don’t drink anymore, but it is a personal habit like smoking that indirectly affects others. Where do we draw the line?
Drinking while driving was once tolerated a lot more, in movies and society. Maybe becaise people don’t see smoking as one of theose things posing an immediate threat.
(Not to get off on a tangent, but we suck at seeing the threat of something unless its immediate. Look how long it took for people to discover asbestos was bad for you.)
As for smoking areas, fine. People should have a place to do it. Although it's just in practice now, that ain't happening. Go outside any building and the smokers who are supposed to be away from the entrance are there in droves.
It's all good though. Been some time since I vented this much.
;-p
Excellent ideas all around. Thanks for entering the discussion, joker. Very much enjoyed it, and agree. I was remiss not to make a distinction between quality of smoke.
I see your point about physical reaction, MTLB, however I stand with what I said about that issue, and feel very confident that it will come up more and more as we all progress. I also wouldn't label many things a vice, but that's just me.
Also, re: the magazine rack comments I'm not just talking about mass media adverts to convince one to buy product or view a certain film or even attend to an ideology, but the more layered messages hidden not just in definitions/context, but in the physical spaces of the hieroglyphs, and the meaning of symbols in plain sight pretty much everywhere one looks. Psychological and physical reactions are caused by these things, often without our conscious awareness. Very interesting stuff, and you can always do a search and turn up better explanations than I can offer...I think the word/image debate is older than the smoking debate.
In conclusion I see your point and wouldn't suggest you do anything differently at all, other than perhaps considering or looking into a focus on the subject of word/image and mind/body in your daily life (if for no other reason, to amuse yourself because it will after the patterns become...obvious).
In a consensus reality anyone who wished to run the show would need to control those words/images (and have them spread in as many ways as possible), for whatever purpose.
Best wishes and much respect (you too, joker).
"Psychological and physical reactions are caused by these things, often without our conscious awareness."
"In a consensus reality anyone who wished to run the show would need to control those words/images."
These two comments prompt me to write something in reaction because they seem like massively interesting topics that could really offer up an interesting discussion for various reasons. Will be writing but much thanks for the kudos, the props and the good reads.
As for not thinking there's something such as a vice, I think it's merely a word we attribute meaning via consensus over something we have totally different considerations about. Negative connotations not withstanding, when you break down what a vice is, it's pretty much learned behavior that often might have a negative effect on the subject but that provides some type of satisfaction or self realization when performing this behavior. These actions get reinforced by "dependence" or "addiction" that are sometimes physical, other times psychological and quite often both. As for there being a learned behavior that might end up being detrimental to your health, then yeah, maybe you could say that's a vice and that vices exist. At one time it’s a conscious decision but after a while it becomes inherent behavior of that person and they’ll do what they have to so as to receive the gratification from the “vice”. You also have to take into account that the negative side of the word vice requires someone establishing the negative effects of the action, that they don’t approve and that upon leaving this to the side, the person will gain freedom, which is also a crock. Anyways, that’s enough psycho rambling for now, but I’ll be writing in regards to the two topmost lines. Again my thanks and have a great weekend.
Cheers and all the best to both. :)
Whoa bra, I think I need to go watch Point Break now just to be at one with Bodi’s chi.
;-p
Ho brah, dat be a good call brah. Me's gonna try and gets some wavies to make Paulie Shore noises, awooooooo like-a the weasellllllllll. Might have gotten way into my Niet-shit for a second there but hey, can't be all shits and giggles I guess. Have a great weekend tho bro.
Cheers
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