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 ...
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?
And what would they say, for the sake of public health, that the government makes everyone get vaccinated?
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.
I guess it depends on what a posters pet cause is. Government force is okay if they approve of the action.
That's interesting. This issue is where you find out if someone truly believes in personal freedom.
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
Wow! Interesting. Thanks!
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.
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...
Rush Limbaugh was a big cigar guy, and he died of lung cancer
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.)
And people who don’t smoke die of lung cancer. When God calls, you go.
I don’t smoke myself, but its not for me to tell someone who smokes they can’t...
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.
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.
Hitler’s Anti-Smoking Campaign
The first anti-smoking campaign in the world
https://historyofyesterday.com/hitlers-anti-smoking-campaign-2e8321916933
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!
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.
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.
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