The Scapegoat

Picture of a smoker. Is that so bad?

Returning to a topic I've blogged about several times before: the big nasty ridiculous double standard the world is all hung up on about tobacco.

At the moment, everyone but the most diehard social conservatives is laughing off Michael Phelps' marijuana use, and even the mainstream media fails to see anything to be upset about, as in this piece by the Canadian Press:

While there's no condoning what Phelps did, most of us understand that if anybody has earned the right to blow off some steam, it's him. Phelps has been in the pool nearly every day since age seven and his accomplishments, beginning with a national age-group record at 10, attest to how much he sacrificed, beginning with any semblance of a normal childhood. Consider, too, that the current president acknowledged in his own memoir that he experimented with drugs, waved them off as youthful indulgences and had no problems getting on with his life.

Just a youthful indulgence. Harmless as sugar candy. Not a problem. What's all the fuss about, ha, ha, ha.

And of course lots of people are hoping that this new era of Change will include relaxing the marijuana laws; and personally, I foresee within ten to twenty years it will be legalized everywhere in this country. You know that's where all this is going, don't you?

Well, okay. You want to chop up some dried plant leaves, roll them in paper, and smoke it, enjoy it - go right ahead, be my guest.

But then why - hypocrite - do you scowl and frown and look daggers at me when I do the very same thing with my tobacco? As if it's the worst sin ever in the whole world since the dawn of history.

On the Google News page tonight that featured the above article, this same article appears, from Reuters:

A Florida jury ruled on Thursday that a smoker's death was caused by his addiction to cigarettes, a legal setback for cigarette giant Philip Morris in the first of potentially thousands of cases to go to trial.

Here we go again. I thought we already had the ginormous tobacco trials back in the late 90's, a huge multi-billion dollar settlement spread out over all the states. Apparently that was not enough.

Do you see what's wrong with this picture? Marlboros - kinda like homosexuality - are destroying the world, horrors. Oh but marijuana - well that's just fine and dandy, like cotton candy.

Great Big Clue for anyone who hasn't figured it out yet: most of what's Right and Wrong is not carved in stone. The bulk of it simply comes down to majority vote at any point in time.

There are fashions in morality, and they are no more eternal than fashions in clothing, hair, and everything else. Changeable as the waves of the sea, back and forth. It's not whether something is Good or Bad - it's whether it's In or Out; that's the real foundation of most people's morality.

A hundred years ago right now, your great-grandparents in all likelihood were absolutely certain that alcohol was destroying the nation and the world, and they kept on and on about it until alcohol was prohibited in this country - by changing the Constitution of the United States.

Yet that was a huge failure, and a stupid move for several reasons. Now we look back and laugh at how silly our ancestors were, not noticing the family resemblance in the mirror.

So don't hit me with an attitude about my smokes, don't you dare. Go roll your joint, drink your booze, swill your five-bucks-a-cup coffee, drive your gas guzzler, max out your credit cards, stuff yourself to obesity - and leave me the hell alone.

You enjoy your life, I'll enjoy mine, and Phelps will enjoy his. After all, it's a free country - right?