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Tobacco and the Soul
First Things ^ | April 1997 | Michael P. Foley

Posted on 10/10/2021 9:28:08 AM PDT by Fester Chugabrew

The current brouhaha over smoking has made everyone painfully aware of tobacco's effects on the body, but it has also obscured a more profound reason for smoking’s popularity: its relation to the soul. As the heyday of smoking passes into the ashheap of history, it is meet that we reflect on this connection.

The soul, of course, is a complex thing. Long ago Plato suggested that we consider it as divided into three parts—the appetitive, spirited, and rational—that correspond to the three basic kinds of human desires: the desire to satisfy physical appetites, the desire for recognition, and the desire for truth. Once this tripartite division is recalled, tobacco’s relation to the soul becomes clear: the three prevalent types of smoking tobacco—cigarettes, cigars, and pipes—correspond to the three parts of the soul.

Cigarettes correspond to the appetitive part of the soul, a fact that explains their association with both food and sex. The connection with the latter is particularly obvious: think of the proverbial postcoital cigarette, or of the ubiquity of cigarettes at singles bars. People with strong physical desires demand instant gratification, and they try to make what they desire as much a part of their own bodies as possible: hunger demands eating, thirst drinking, and lust making the body of one’s lover a part of one’s own. So too with cigarettes. A cigarette is inhaled: it must be fully and internally consumed in order to give pleasure. And a cigarette, with its quick buzz, is also instant gratification. Even the cigarette’s notorious connection to death ties it into appetites: both are indifferent to health in their quest for satisfaction, and both, when they reach addictive levels, become hostile to it.

Cigars, on the other hand, correspond to the spirited part of the soul. . . .

(Excerpt) Read more at firstthings.com ...


TOPICS: Heated Discussion
KEYWORDS: cigarettes; cigars; pipes; smoking
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Written almost 25 years ago, this perspective on tobacco use is sure to stimulate a remark or two. What better place to post it than the Smoky Backroom where discussion gets heated?
1 posted on 10/10/2021 9:28:08 AM PDT by Fester Chugabrew
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To: Fester Chugabrew
Interesting take on smoking.

It has always amazed me that when government targeted smokers, "conservatives" fell into lock-step. What would they say if government did the same to alcohol?

2 posted on 10/10/2021 9:55:31 AM PDT by DJ MacWoW (The Fed Gov is not one ring to rule them all)
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To: DJ MacWoW

And what would they say, for the sake of public health, that the government makes everyone get vaccinated?


3 posted on 10/10/2021 10:16:01 AM PDT by fruser1
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To: DJ MacWoW

Was leafing through National Geographic from the 50’s and saw a photo of Moscow with an ad decrying the evils of smoking. It just took a little while longer for us to embrace groupthink.


4 posted on 10/10/2021 10:22:37 AM PDT by Fester Chugabrew (No nation that sanctions the wholesale slaughter of its unborn citizens is fit to endure.)
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To: fruser1

I guess it depends on what a posters pet cause is. Government force is okay if they approve of the action.


5 posted on 10/10/2021 10:25:25 AM PDT by DJ MacWoW (The Fed Gov is not one ring to rule them all)
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To: Fester Chugabrew
Was leafing through National Geographic from the 50’s and saw a photo of Moscow with an ad decrying the evils of smoking.

That's interesting. This issue is where you find out if someone truly believes in personal freedom.

6 posted on 10/10/2021 10:28:24 AM PDT by DJ MacWoW (The Fed Gov is not one ring to rule them all)
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To: DJ MacWoW

The way serious cigar smokers deal with the ban on Cuban cigars is the future for a wide variety of products in a pfascist world—we totally ignore the laws, order online from a variety of excellent vendors, and pay no tax because the product is illegal.

The unenforceable and unenforced laws have created huge international vendors like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8F39O2Q30A


7 posted on 10/10/2021 10:31:28 AM PDT by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: cgbg

Wow! Interesting. Thanks!


8 posted on 10/10/2021 10:40:42 AM PDT by DJ MacWoW (The Fed Gov is not one ring to rule them all)
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To: Fester Chugabrew
What better place to post it than the Smoky Backroom where discussion gets heated?

Isn't it where discussion goes to die, or else to go on and on zombie like without finally giving up the ghost?

Long ago Plato suggested that we consider it as divided into three parts—the appetitive, spirited, and rational—that correspond to the three basic kinds of human desires: the desire to satisfy physical appetites, the desire for recognition, and the desire for truth. Once this tripartite division is recalled, tobacco’s relation to the soul becomes clear: the three prevalent types of smoking tobacco—cigarettes, cigars, and pipes—correspond to the three parts of the soul.

Straussian humor, I guess, and a little behind the times. Cigars -- and especially pipes -- burned out even before cigarettes did, and came to have more to do with pretentiousness than with the higher parts of the soul.

9 posted on 10/10/2021 10:42:39 AM PDT by x
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To: x

There are many pretentious cigar smokers, but there are also many blue collar cigar smokers out there.

Then there are the serious hobbyists like me—the web has made it possible for us to figure out what is hype and what is the “real deal”. :-)

Cigar world is more complex than the mass media version...


10 posted on 10/10/2021 10:46:44 AM PDT by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: cgbg

Rush Limbaugh was a big cigar guy, and he died of lung cancer


11 posted on 10/10/2021 10:49:19 AM PDT by BigEdLB (Let’s go Brandon!)
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To: BigEdLB

We are all going to die—I plan to pursue my favorite hobbies, and I am old enough now that I really don’t worry about it anymore.

(Btw my father is still alive at 94 years old, in very good health and smoked cigars his entire life. Statistics can be very misleading for individual decision making.)


12 posted on 10/10/2021 10:54:46 AM PDT by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: BigEdLB

And people who don’t smoke die of lung cancer. When God calls, you go.


13 posted on 10/10/2021 10:54:55 AM PDT by DJ MacWoW (The Fed Gov is not one ring to rule them all)
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To: cgbg

I don’t smoke myself, but its not for me to tell someone who smokes they can’t...


14 posted on 10/10/2021 10:59:09 AM PDT by BigEdLB (Let’s go Brandon!)
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To: BigEdLB

Cigar smokers have learned how to function in a hostile world—we know we are on our own.

I know when I meet a cigar smoker these days they are of independent mind and strong will—people who can be counted on when the going gets tough.


15 posted on 10/10/2021 11:01:35 AM PDT by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: DJ MacWoW

Of these three, only cigars and pipes have come into play for my personal use, both only occasional. Cigars maybe 12 a year. Pipe has been idle for decades. Just a lack of time, opportunity, and mood.

Back in the day it was occasional joints, bong hits, etc. The author’s remarks concerning that strike a chord, but I would not have admitted it back then.


16 posted on 10/10/2021 11:07:08 AM PDT by Fester Chugabrew (No nation that sanctions the wholesale slaughter of its unborn citizens is fit to endure.)
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To: Fester Chugabrew

Hitler’s Anti-Smoking Campaign
The first anti-smoking campaign in the world

https://historyofyesterday.com/hitlers-anti-smoking-campaign-2e8321916933


17 posted on 10/10/2021 11:09:21 AM PDT by Rusty0604 (" When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat." -Ronald Reagan)
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To: Fester Chugabrew

smoke if you want to, don’t if you don’t want to...

seems like the world would be a much better place if everyone minded their own damn business... especially busy body do-gooder yankees!


18 posted on 10/10/2021 12:38:43 PM PDT by Levy78
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To: BigEdLB

My former employer was 94 years old last I seen him and he’s a pack and a half a day smoker, still alive, still active.


19 posted on 10/10/2021 1:04:31 PM PDT by This_Dude
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To: fruser1

Yep, all those who in one breath said “I am for smaller government” then in the next breath said nothing or worse cheered on the Government as they went after smokers paved the way for what the government is doing now and what they will do next.


20 posted on 10/10/2021 1:23:36 PM PDT by qam1 (There's been a huge party. All plates and the bottles are empty, all that's left is the bill to pay)
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