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Quote:

Originally posted by Frederick
Barbara,

“Those are the oldest and most typical arguments of someone who is not ready to face the pain of giving up a deadly addiction.”

-- Whether they are or are not, shouldn’t make the veracities of their validations any less or more significant, non? By the way, I had started smoking during college, but quit several years ago. So, I base my rationalizations on this subject on past experience, and not tainted with some defensive mechanism to further justify not giving up a beloved habit.

“True, but would one knowingly walk out in front of a moving bus or throw oneself into the shark tank at SeaWorld?”

-- This analogy is imperfect and serves little other than to empathically make a point colorfully. For instance, there are many occasions on everyday life which smoking increases one’s utility of satisfaction. To name a few, say, waiting for a friend whose late at a street corner; or, the pure pleasure of the after dinner cigarette. The same reason why some eat ice cream during the former, and order desserts during the later, is the reason why some smoke—to enhance satisfaction. Sure, there are risks and a price to be paid for the pleasure, just as there are in eating ice cream, drinking wine, or sky diving. However, running in front of a speeding bus or diving into a pool of famished sharks has no redeeming qualities whatsoever, unless we assume one has an extreme masochistic fetish for being human pancake or dreams of being dinner.

“True, but at what expense? Your heart and lungs, cancer of the stomach, diabetes? Exercise has the same impact on metabolism, but in a much healthier way.”

-- I agree with you strongly here, and one of the most pressing motivations for me to give up smoking was that my running were beginning to suffer from the adverse effects caused by smoking. Once again, exercise is not without risks either, even if much less and easily more bearable than smoking. Running can lead to joint issues in the long term, weight lifting increases blood pressure in some, and for some people, and exercise simply isn’t a feasible or practical option during a certain stage in their respective lives. For the latter, would you say smoking to increase metabolic rate to be the worst thing in the world? I say, what if their motivation was to lose weight as quickly as they can, in order to make it feasible to begin exercising?

“Well, pick one that won't kill you, like shopping or gambling.”

-- Not to be smug here, but clearly smoking is the lesser evil of many of the “other” vices, which tempts all of us in our modern society. Is it any less of a catastrophe for the gambling addict who loses everything for the sake of fueling his addiction? I’d argue to many families of those who became destitute from gambling, they’d suggest smoking to the lesser malice.

“Tobacco use has no defense.”

I agree with you here, other than pure pleasure, it has no other justification of merit. Even with chocolate or wine, some suggest there are nutrients in them, which actually benefits us; however, refined white sugar has no redeeming qualities either. So, cigarettes and sugar are peers in terms of being purely for pleasure without other redeeming benefits. Now, I’m not sure which of the two is more harmful, but I sure don’t see any 12 step programs to stop eating sugar.

With kindest regards,

Frederick

Nothing to add here. Great post, Frederick!!