Some history

Before ranting I need to make a brief disclaimer: although I'm a smoker I've been trying to respect other people's choices for as long as I can rememeber. Through the years I always tried to be as cautious as possible by:

• never smokin in cars when a non-smoker is present
• never puffing away when there are children present (which is something that never ceases to amaze their smoking parents)
• never smoking inside the offices (more on this later on)
• at my own place, restricting myself to smoking either at my office (with an open window) or stepping outside the house
• always step outside when visiting other people (usually when the conversation starts to become a bit boring)
• last but not least, lately (way before the -abstract- government grew the balls individuals wouldn't) trying to simply just puff away while walking down the street instead of at the coffee table

So, basically, I always try to not disturb anyone else with my own personal choices (be it smoking or whatever). If you're preparing yourself to drop a paternalistic comment about my choices I already have an answer for you: go fuck yourself, I already have a doctor (and a very, very good one).

Now, as I wrote before you'll never catch me smoking inside corporate offices. This is a habit I picked up when I worked in London some years ago. When someone reached for a ciggy, they always stepped outside. And let me tell you that it really works. So much so that, as we move into a new office, one of the rules dictated by me is that no smoking is allowed inside our office. In the mean time, I've learned that the new law also prohibits it, which is a good thing because now I don't have to justify myself, I'll simply tell people that "it's the law, blame the goverment" :-)

What's pissing me off

What I'm watching (and reading) would make Le Bon proud (not that his theories needed assertion though). Left and right you can hear (and read) the crowd praising the salvation that came through in the form of Law and cursing everyone else:

> Ban smokers from the country! Goverment, make tobacco extremely expensive! Die smokers, just die!

Honestly, I'm actually somewhat entertained by this kind of behaviour (popcorn and all), because it reminds me of how stupid and small people (in the abstract, of course, and myself included) in fact are: when in confrontation, the individual chooses resignation but as the meme catches on (started by someone with greater power) the (weak) individual seeks to display it's aggressiveness in order to get approval and form a bigger, stronger group.

To prove a point: how many of the now raging non-smokers have actually approached a total stranger and asked them to put down their cigarette? In the absence of compliance, how many went to let that public space's manager know they had just lost a few customers for life? (insert cricket sounds) Right... Not that it's something to brag about but I've done it myself for way, way lesser reasons. I don't go to the movies as often as I did anymore. People chewing popcorns like fucking pigs is something that makes me want to go postal so I made my point to them. That failed, I left and made sure to leave my concerns with the manager telling they'd just lost a couple of customers. Of course, it totally ruined the night but hey, I just can't stand that crap and I reserve the right to want to hear the actors instead of some a group of people chewing down buckets of heated corn. I bet the corn munchers don't agree with me, maybe I should start a petition to ban popcorns from cinema theaters... hmmmmmmm.

Conclusion (and cheap demagoguery)

I'm not saying these people aren't right because they totally are: absolutely no one has to put up with someone else's crap, specially stuff that severely affects one's health. What's wrong is the aggressiveness they're dying to display, even though they never had the balls to actually do something about it. I'd kill to hear someone tell his boss "either you ban smoking inside the office or we quit".

What I'd really like to know is why aren't these very same people rioting over the air pollution (nowadays you can't go to the beach without risking skin cancer or breathe in a major city without risking lung cancer - oh, right, it's only passive smoking that causes that, my bad)? Or all those nasty microwaves emitted by cell phones? Back in the day the tobacco industry also claimed that there weren't enough studies to prove a correlation between tobacco and lung cancer. Are you going to wait 100 years for someone else to lobby for a law that prohibits the use of cell phones? You did read somewhere that even if you don't use one, you're affected right? Maybe you just don't care, that's what. Maybe driving your spanking new SUV or being reacheable all the time is as important to you as a moment of zen with a cigarette is to a smoker.

Anyway, as written earlier, I'm totally with you guys: ban smoking from public closed spaces, I really don't care, so don't torch me bro's.