Kafka's Web: Smoking or Not....? That's not even a Question....ANY MORE

Change of Outlook and Change of Attitude...

Growing up... The bill boards glamorized smoking... To smoke was sign of maturity and coming of age...

The allure of the Glamour...on the bill boards was too much...

We, group of teenagers, were camping on hill top...At the foot there was the lovely beach... Great scenery and lush surrounding... and the blue azure just at the foot of the hill...
It was hot and summary...and we were teenagers...We decided to walk to the beach... It will take about two hours...a bit more... But we were young...The day was young and we were full of energy...
We climbed down...the path was lovely... We even encountered a snake... I have no clue what type... That was one of the high lights of the walk... We stoned the snake and it sneaked away...
Then all of my friends began smoking... I was the youngest and did not... One of them asked if I want to try... Others said, "why not...?"
...and I was young and ready for the peer pressure... I wanted to be like the guys in the bill boards... I wanted to be mature and grown up... So the peer pressure got its way...

The peer pressure...The culture...

and ................"We yearned to be like them..."

I lit the cigarette... at the time filter was just invented... but smoking filtered cigarettes was for women and for the weak ...We were young and manly... and I inhaled...and I coughed ... I inhaled another time...and I coughed... I repeated...and coughed again...and I got initiated... 30 minutes later... and we repeated the process... and I smoked again...I did not cough as much...
By the end of the day I "enjoyed" the smoke...and by the end of the day I was more "mature" and more "adult"... After all, I had the proof..."I smoked..."
I got addicted...but the story goes like this... Whenever there was a debate we always insisted..."If I want I can quit just like that...? and we snapped our fingers..."But the fact is that I love it and I do not want to quit..."
Of course we were deluding ourselves...
There was yet the other pressure...
Smoking was not only manly and the adult thing to do...It was not only a sign of adulthood and maturity...But in the university... and in educated society... It was the intellectual thing to do...

The intellectuals ... did it too...

If you are an intellectual, then you had to smoke...That was the prevalent culture... and Believe it or not, I yearned to be classified as an intellectual...Like all the others that were growing up with me...Our debating room was full of smoke...Everyone smoked... Later ... outside... We sort of boasted..."Oh...I am so exhausted...and my eyes are hurting so much...the room was full of smoke..." and we yawned to proof the case...

Albert Camus...he was an intellectual that I admired...

We were young and impressionable and at time stupid too...
We blended our thoughts in smoke...We smoked our debates...and we became intellectuals like all the others...At the time it was fashionable too to have a photo with an intellectually inclined cigarette dangling from your lips...
We were young and we had a desire to be seen as mature and ready to lead intellectuals...After all we did smoke...

***

The only counter argument came from Western puritanical missionaries...They said "your body is the temple of God...and you should not contaminate it by smoking..." Their argument was that smoking is a sin, since it will lead you to a night life of unknown dimensions...

A Worshiper stands with outstretched arms facing heaven. This scripture reference from 1 Corinthians 6:19 asks the questions, "Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?" In the Old Testament God's Spirit dwelt within the tabernacle and later-on in the Temple. After the ascension of Jesus, His spirit came and dwelt in the heart of every believer.

And it was very easy to negate their arguments...

It was simplistic moralizing... After all, a person can be good and smoking too... A person can even be a good smoker and good too...

So we did not buy the preaching of the puritanical missionaries... We did not like them anyway...They were carrying "The White Man's Burden....." and enslaving all of Asia and Africa...They were colonizing South America and evading Australia by sending the outcasts of their society...there...the other side of the ocean...

***

Eventually...

After so many years of "heavy smoking"... I quit..."Cold Turkey" as they say...

I did ... a cold turkey...

Why...?

Again peer pressure... and societal values...

Smoking is not "in" any more...

Now it is heavier drugs...in fashion and I am not young enough to experiment and yield to peer pressure any more...

But,

All of these came to me last week...again... and I am very much missed the intellectual milieu of my university cafe' and the pubs on the street... I wanted to be in Europe again and roam the cafe' trottoirs of yesterday...and I had a huge desire to inhale the smoke of intellectualism and get drunk on vodka again...

***

All these came to me again because... last week they were playing ads against smoking...on the TV... and I said to myself..." Where were you...when I was growing up...?"

I think it was the cultural hegemony of the U.S. and the West...before when I was growing up... and now it has altered its content, but the intention is the same...cultural domination of the Village...

The ads are very graphic and nasty... It will turn anyone of sane mind off... But sanity is not addictive...But nicotine is...

These are the three ads that I have seen so far...

1. Gum disease