I'd like to go on record right now as saying I don't see anything
wrong with tobacco. Having said that however,
I do not dispute that there are very real health problems associated with
it. Inhaling huge quantities of
anything except relatively clean air is a definite threat to lungs and other
associated organs. Living inside dense
clouds of smoke, whether first or second hand, is inadvisable in both the short
and long run of it. I do not dispute
this.
I do dispute however those who would reach in and condemn the substance
because people don't know how to use it. There are few moments in life to compare to a quiet,
uninterrupted smoke. Moments of
reverie, looking out through a rich cloud of tobacco smoke, set aside moments
in which one is not expected to do anything other than savor the slight
intoxication, the heady, deep pleasure of tobacco curling about. Inside these moments are pleasures which are
religious in nature and necessary for the soul. Inside these tranquil recesses is theology at its finest.
What
is wrong with tobacco is not the tobacco itself, or even the nicotine. It is the profit motive that turned a
sturdy, inoffensive weed which the Indians discovered could be lit and inhaled
into a mega-packaged and insidiously advertised accessory in a crush-proof
box. Somebody sold us menthol taste,
micronite filters, snappy slogans and romantic billboards, and we bought them
by the carton-full. They took a local
product that was grown in little patches behind the house and made it into a
full-fledged industry with stockholders and boards of directors. In America's finest tradition, they told us
that if we used it, we would be more confident and more popular. They said the more we used, the cooler we
would be. We wanted to believe them, so
we did. Whatever our personalities
lacked, whatever image we wanted, there was a brand out there that would
provide it.
The point here is that
tobacco is yet another product abused by America's obsessive-compulsive
personality. If it feels good, do it
til it kills you. Butterscotch sundaes
are wonderful things. But we don't
chain-eat them all day long. Tobacco is
a pleasant additive to life. But not if
it consumes 10% of our gross income and fills our lungs and the lungs of those
around us with choking particulates.
The industry just made it too easy to smoke, and we are absolute suckers
for ease. The easier it is, the more we
abuse it. And the more we abuse it, the
less we appreciate it. We stopped
savoring tobacco generations ago.
The answer of course is to
make it harder. Growing your own is the
ultimate solution. I'm considering it,
but space is a problem. Rolling your
own is the next best thing. It requires
time and concentration, both of which lend themselves to enhancing the tobacco
experience. There is no store-bought
image that goes along with it. And,
unless one is absolutely stationary, there is an upper limit to how many
roll-yer-owns one can do in a day. One
or two is a realistic number which would remove you from the cancer statistics
and minimize the addictive effects. Smoking
ain't bad for you. Smoking 10 or
20 or 60 a day is. I think it's
important to know the difference.
There
are other pleasures in life that have been similarly sullied. Drugs come to mind. Various drugs have properties that can lead
to self-revelation, that can, properly used, provide valuable perspective. In combination with an inquiring mind and a
spiritual base, drugs can enhance enlightenment. Early religions used certain drugs in this manner.
With the increase in the
level of pain in our society, drugs have become heavy-duty anesthetics. Persistently bombing the brain with atomic
mega-blasts is obviously not of great benefit to the individual or the
culture. It provides momentary relief
but lingering, significant side effects.
Charred lives lay along the roadside, and you got to blame
something. Drugs become BAD. Well I don't particularly relish defending
substances that can destroy lives, but it is not the drug that is the villain
here. JUST SAY NO may be a necessary if stupid refrain for this time in
our society, but The Mind is the
thing. The Pain is the thing. The Emptiness is the thing. Drugs ain't the thing.
The same can be said for alcohol. There are numerous studies that have
extolled the benefits of moderate alcohol intake. Indeed the pleasures of beer with barbeque or wine with dinner or
sipping whiskey at bedtime are considerable.
I have however tripped over enough muscatel bottles, been panhandled
enough and read enough sad statistics to know that it doesn't end there. The human condition being what it is, there
is a tendency to seek release from it.
And nothing delivers momentary liberation like copious quantities of
alcohol.
The advertising people imply that drinking
is somehow associated with attractive young women with large breasts. They are, in fact, not related. Neither is it related to cold, mountain
streams or wild mustangs. Mostly it is
related to inducing as many of us as possible, by cheap hook or clever crook,
to drink as much of the product as possible.
What was once made out of dandelions and potatoes down in the cellar and
used for barter and special occasions is now sold by the case in gas stations
and has become the national sedative.
Well it's comforting to
have a scapegoat, but it doesn't really solve anything. Alcohol ain't nothing but fermented
sugar. It's the sadness and the fear
and the uncertainty that make us turn to it in such quantity. A Constitutional Amendment prohibited the alcohol,
but it didn't touch the despair.
So in this national debate over "What's wrong with America?",
I think it is important to remember that it is not the abuse of drugs that
precipitated moral decay---more likely the other way around. It is not profligate sex and out-of-control
rock 'n' roll which caused declining family values, but the opposite. It is not the misuse of alcohol which brings
about spiritual emptiness, but vice versa.
The focus must be clear before the cure can be effected.