Smoking Is Not Cooler Than The Other Side Of The Pillow

So whilst browsing the web like you do I came across an article called ‘Screw Stoptober – smoking is cool’. Now this article straight away grabbed my attention, it stood out like a psychedelic poster from the '70's. You see every smoking article we read nowadays are titled ‘quit smoking’, ‘stop smoking’, ‘top 10 ways to break your smoking addiction’ or something to that effect. This article however was the exception to the rule...it didn't follow the easy path and agree with the crowd – the person who wrote this article had their own views and were not about to be scared of voicing them for fear of being condemned.

After giving it a read I must be honest and say that there were a few points that I could actually relate with for example this paragraph:

“For a cigarette is surely nothing if not a universal symbol of putting pleasure before peril; of living for the moment and forgetting forever; of embracing the glorious nihilism of now.“

Just to make things clear here I like the message contained within the paragraph, you know the whole living for the moment as opposed to actually using a cigarette. I am a whole hearted believer that people should live for the moment which allows individuals to achieve thier goals in which things such as fear might otherwise forbid.

Another point the author made in the article was why quit smoking for the fear of getting ill or worse dying when you could be hit by a bus tomorrow? This argument always 'grinds my gears' (one for the Family Guy fans out there) because getting hit by a bus is out of a person’s control whereas smoking is a choice. You choose to smoke and harm yourself whereas getting hit by a bus would be by pure chance.

Smokers do have the right to smoke and I would be the first in line to defend their rights if anybody else said otherwise but don’t sit there and ridicule the government’s attempts to try and reduce the amount of smokers or things such as Stoptober which are aimed at helping people to quit. I must admit at the start of the article the author did wish anyone who was taking part in Stoptober luck, but then later on went on to criticise the scheme. The argument raised was that we should stop funding these services to smokers on the basis that if they really wanted to quit then they would do anyway without the need them. Well if this was true then why are there already around 210,678 people signed up and taking part? Stoptober was a huge success last year which is why it is running again this year. The hypocritical thing here is that the article says these schemes and services are a waste of money but how much of the taxpayers money is spent on the NHS treating all the smoking related diseases?

The article ends by saying...

“Because allow me to reiterate: smoking is cool, and smoking is sexy, and smoking will result in premature death. Let each of us be condemned to be the people we are. “

Again the last sentence I totally agree with - its just the matter of calling smoking cool and sexy that I have issues with.This is not a rant at smokers but glorifying smoking is not cool...not by any means.

Share: If you support government stop smoking schemes and quit smoking services.

Like: If you feel like the author that they are a waste of money.