by raiph » Thu Nov 15, 2007 9:56 am
Now that's a very typical attitude, encapsulating the opinion of the day, sadly shared by many, and only slightly less holier-than-thou than you might find in a rabid ex-smoker.
It is ripe with righteous condemnation and prejudice, and even flavoured with an "old saying" (Old saying?) to add credence.
I am a lifelong smoker, with some 60-odd years of addiction behind me.
Like many of my fellow addicts (and non-smokers, of course) I share the view that smoky places are not nice - I have spent my life avoiding smoking compartments in trains and buses, etc, and hated the smell of most pubs.
And like most of us, I accept, without question, that it is harmful, to others as well as to me (as are many other things which are selfishly clung to in spite of the third party consequences).
Like many of my fellow addicts, I have always - always - been considerate of non-smokers: I would never dream of lighting up in someone else's house or office, nor would I smoke in someone's presence (indoors or out) without asking if they had objection to my doing so.
(The idea of "going outside for a smoke" has been a practice of smokers from long before the anti-nicotine police were established.)
Born of two heavy smokers, I became hooked to the habit at an early age, when it was not only fashionable to smoke (82% of the population smoked tobacco) but society actively encouraged smoking:
- all serving armed forces (and some public services, eg, fire services and some police forces) issued serving men and women with a free, daily cigarette ration;
- many cigarette brands boasted their health-giving properties;
- a visit to a GP often meant sitting in a smoke-filled consulting room with a chain-smoking doctor... (There were more smokers in the medical profession than any other branch of society.)
(A friend of mine was advised by his doctor to take up smoking as a means of alleviating his asthma!)
One could continue indefinitely...
It would have been surprising had I (and many of my generation) not become a smoker, and so many of us wish that we were not so afflicted.
But (and again, like most of my fellow addicts) I don't bang a big drum demanding that non-smokers suffer the secondary effects of my handicap.
Nor do I, at every opportunity, try my damnedest to make non-smokers feel like filthy, diseased pariahs to be chastised and hounded at every opportunity. (Would you non-smokers have similar attitudes to alcoholics? Or even people in wheelchairs? And don't fly the "self-inflicted" flag - it won't flutter.)
So, to all you (I suspect young) non-smokers: have a little understanding, be a little less condemning of those you so easily dismiss as antisocial. Most of us are actually on your side, in spirit, and envy you the fact.