Meet Joe Black (1998) is basically a 2 1/2 hr anecdote, where an angelic Brad Pitt, the angel of death, comes and saves the day by impersonating an IRS agent investigating and exposing the vile young suitor Drew, as Brad takes fiancee Allison’s father (Anthony Hopkins) to heaven. Brad quotes money-grubbing Drew: You can’t avoid ‘death and taxes’.
Yes, Death gets us all in the end, smokers and nonsmokers, smokers statistically earlier but not nearly everyone, and not all that much sooner in any case. And there are lots more causes of lung cancer.
*asbestos
*air pollution
*radon
*genetics
*alcohol
*high carb diet
*viruses
I can attest to smoking – in moderation – as a perk in my life which I don’t begrudge my younger self or me now. Life is hard, and then you die. And I politely demure when I’m told by doctor after doctor to give it up. One cigarette a day is not going to kill me. As an avid cyclist, a car/truck is much more likely to do that.
Speaking of giving up, I seem to have done that with alcohol without any sense of loss. Alcohol was an endless source of headache and nausea in my wild youth. Ramadan helps, and this year, when I could drink (moderately) freely again, I tried and found it did virtually nothing. A brief buzz. It’s good (one drink) to break the ice, but when you’re old, there aren’t any parties or mixers anymore so what’s the use?
That’s one of Islam’s perks: pushing you to give up alcohol. Surah Al-Baqarah (2:219): They ask you about intoxicants and gambling. Say, ‘In both is great sin and [yet, some] benefit for people. But their sin is greater than their benefit.’
I get angry hearing calls to ban smoking completely. Another great Quran quote: Surah Al-Baqarah (2:)256 Let there be no compulsion in religion, for the truth stands out clearly from falsehood. Already cigarette adverts are gone, sponsorships. Fair enough. Far enough!
So why not the same puritanism with respect to alcohol? Alcohol is far, far more lethal, disruptive, a real killer, and yet ads everywhere complete with sexy models or rugged men, everyone happily celebrating whatever. Sadly, prohibition doesn’t work, but take a leaf from the war against smoking: no ads, more taxes, more rigorous legal penalities for the many crimes ‘under the influence’. Make drinking clearly a dangerous vice. That would be a huge step forward.
Don’t take my words as a prescription. I envy people who don’t need a crutch like smoking or alcohol to be happy. And keep in mind, one cigarette is my norm. It’s the anticipation of that calm as much as the smoking. As a general rule in life: it’s the thought that counts. And 90% of joy is in the anticipation.
Like most pleasures/poisons, there are good and bad qualities to tobacco.
Health
Leaving aside its poisonous quality and the heightened risk of lung cancer, the major upside is its calming effect. I know when some crisis hits, I can always take refuge in a smoke. Anything used to excess is harmful. Unlike alcohol, which often leads to more and more and then acting dangerously and foolishly, you quickly reach a limit in smoking. You can die of alcohol poisoning, but it takes years to die from smoking, if at all.
Like all natural poisons, it has medicinal uses:
*Insect repellant against all garden parasites (many a mosquitoey camping trip benefited from a few puffs).
*Indigenous people used tobacco as a pain reliever for ear aches, toothaches and as a poultice.
*Indigenous people believed that the nicotine in the tobacco would help relieve pain as well as help draw out the poison and heal the snake wound. After the poison had been sucked out, chewed leaves could be applied to cuts or bound on the bite with a bandage.
*To alleviate symptoms of ADHD, schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s and dementia.
It’s not a cure, but a powerful pain reliever, with some magical (i.e., we don’t understand) effects.
Social psychology
If you are nervous, again it is calming. Then there’s Freud and what a cigarette represents, its role as a fetish, a substitute for sex. A smoke can be a nice icebreaker. Many of my friendships have begun over sharing a smoke. It’s cheap and less harmful that a few drinks. It’s communal, especially for boys/men. Worldwide, a third of men smoke, only 6% of women, 5x less, do. Canadian men much less (14%), Canadian women much more (10%) — a negative spin-off from feminism?
I remember my first smoke as a teen, out the window but immediately detected by sentry-mother, guilt-tripping me, as if that’s any way to make me stop. As pacifier in my nervous early teaching days. Graduating to Drum rolling tobacco while living abroad. Then reverting to cheap manufactured cigarettes in Egypt, eventually returning to rolling my own in retirement. A cigarette has been a comforting companion throughout my life. I’m loathe to despise and reject this simple, economical pleasure totally. I don’t like fanatics of any stripe.
Religion
Everything is spiritual. Sadly, tobacco was captured by capitalism and most smoking is now industrial – packaged in plastic, filled with chemicals to burn faster so you smoke more. You take them for granted. Rolling my daily cigarette is done with reverence, a ritual akin to prayer. I thank the Lord for His generous gifts to be used responsibly.
North American natives considered it sacred, e.g., the ‘peace pipe’. The sweat lodge relies on heat and wood smoke to cleanse the spirit, recalling early Man’s smokey cave dwelling.
Judaism, Christianity and Islam are undecided, as tobacco only became an issue in the 17th century. In short, moderation is called for, but while Islam proscribes alcohol, smoking (in moderation) is acceptable. Early on in the Hasidic movement, the Baal Shem Tov taught that smoking tobacco can be used as a religious devotion, and can even help bring the Messianic Era. Rabbi Levi Yiztchak of Berditchev is quoted as saying that ‘a Jew smokes on the weekdays and sniffs tobacco on the Sabbath.’
My conclusion after a lifetime of cogitating: one cigarette a day keeps the doctor away. (Also one toke a day but that’s for another article.)
The post Tobacco: Death Sentence with Perks first appeared on Dissident Voice.
This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Eric Walberg.