Happiness is healthy
I was sent an article yesterday [thanks, Ian].
It was a piece by David Hockney in the Financial Times –
Tobacco killjoys are less healthy than the smokers they ban
It’s an excellently written article, well worth a read and I agree with everything he says, but the headline intrigued me.
The Anti-Smoker Brigade are constantly telling us about the incredible damage we are doing to ourselves. Half of all smokers will die [presumably then the other half are immortal?]. Smoking causes fourteen million conditions. We are all going to die a horribly painful death from cancer and heart disease not to mention everything else from Athlete’s Foot up to and including Ebola.
But what about the Anti-Smokers, the Health Nazis and the Fitness Freaks?
Every single one of them is going to die also, and ironically a significant number will die from cancer and heart disease. In fact they will grossly outnumber the smokers in the cancer and heart clinics. How will they feel when they get that diagnosis? Will they go into complete denial saying they cannot possibly have those fatal conditions because they don’t smoke? Will they at last see that they could have lived a life of non-denial because in the end all that abstinence and all those punishing hours on the treadmill meant nothing? Will some idiot claim he caught cancer from watching someone smoke in a film? Will some of the more rabid fanatics even claim on their deathbed to be smokers in a last ditch attempt to distort the figures?
Even in life they are subject to the same illnesses that plague the world. They too will have coughs, colds and the ‘flu. They too will suffer the myriad of little irritations that infect us all. Unfortunately for them there is no single ailment that is unique to smokers, so whatever we get, they get. It’s as simple as that.
The sad fact is that we are all going to die, and surprisingly enough that includes the Health Nazis. Yes, they too are going to die, and they are subject to the same roll of the dice as the rest of us. Just because they have preached the Gospel of Healthy Lifestyle and Abstinence doesn’t exempt them from any of the little nasties that fate has in store. Can you imagine the frustration in the mind of an Anti-Smoker as he dies of cancer?
I wonder if, as they head towards that great white light how many are going to regret the fact that it was all in vain and they really should have concentrated more on carefree happiness rather than obsessive abstemious lifestyles?
Contrary to what they would have you believe – a healthy lifestyle does not guarantee eternal life.
I read down through some of the comments until I just couldn't take it anymore. Talk about sanctimonious, smug, self-righteous drones. And all of them utterly, utterly misinformed. They had to a man absorbed all the propaganda and were trotting out all the trite soundbites they'd been taught. They were fact-free emptyheads spouting tripe. Critical thinking has passed them by without stopping to say hello, and when God was handing out commonsense, they were too busy trying to ban stuff to notice.
I think I'm going to puke…
Yup. It's all there – "your toxic fumes are killing us", "the cost of healthcare", "nasty addicts" and all the rest of the garbage. One comment I did like –
Nothing changes…
Dear Grandad
The professional anti-smokers are on much higher salaries, pensions and benefits than they would ever get doing something useful, plus jollies to exciting parts of the world.
I doubt they really care about what diseases they will die of while they earn so much being paid to be puritanical. For real puritans, it's a bonanza, for fake puritans it's a well-paid job, pension and excellent benefits. Much more fun than a proper job.
And caviar is nice, I'm sure.
DP
Wealth is no good to them when they come down with something painful though? And what about all those deluded masses who have been taken in with all the rhetoric, and who delight in slagging off smokers? It must be quite a shock for them?
It always makes me sad on the lung cancer forum how astonished non smokers are when diagnosed since they have been brainwashed to believe it is only a smoking disease. There are a lot of them particularly youngish women. The alternative to smoking is not immortality so might s well enjoy whatever pleasures make you happy.
I wonder how many times doctors have failed to diagnose an early onset of cancer, dismissing the possibility as the patient is a non-smoker? I would imagine it is a lot more common than the medical profession would care to admit?
Very common, as it is not suspected, many doctors are as brainwashed as the public, the result is that it is usually dx late, probably why the survival rate is low. As the lungs have no nerves symptoms tend, in most cases, to appear when it has grown enough to affect other organs or spread. I was lucky, no symptoms at all only found incidentally when I had a CT for an unrelated problem, it didn't even show on an x ray. Had surgery 4 years ago, fine since and still smoke. I tell friends who are worried to say they used to smoke, if you have lungs you can get lung cancer.
The '14 million major conditions' on that website just links to a nicorette advertisment… The opportunistic feckers:)
If there was 14 million conditions of anything none of us would live longer that a butterfly:)
I think what they meant to say was that 14 million people reported having "smoking related" illnesses, but why spoil a good headline? 😉
Well someone should tell them how to speak English Properly. Where is a grammar Nazi when you need one:). There are plenty of them where I work.
There are one or two who hang around here too. 😐
You rang, Sir?
I'm a non-smoker but feel that the anti-smoker lobbies have had too much influence on government legislation over the years. I was quite happy when Irish Rail provided smoking and non-smoking carriages. I was quite happy when restaurants provided smoking and non-smoking areas for diners. Since they banned all smoking in pubs the pubs have acquired a dead atmosphere, compounded by the falloff in custom because of diminishing disposable incomes and the reluctance of rural pubgoers to risk the breathaliser blocades mounted by the gardai outside villages and towns.
In 17th century England the religious puritans closed the theatres and imposed frumpy dress codes on women and young damsels. In the secularised societies of Europe today the puritans are fervently pushing for busybody legislation that inhibits the joie-de-vivre of everyday life. Shakespeare in Twelfth Night mocked the dour Malvolio. I think it's time for literary types to get cracking at mocking the busybody puritanism of our age.
The Tobacco Control industry has grown way out of proportion to any problem that might have existed. It is now just one gigantic gravy train for all the fanatics and puritans who feel justified in ordering the world to fit their ideals.
Couldn't read the article since it's blocked by a pay wall or mandatory registration for 8 articles a month–jeesus. I Googl'd the article title and finally found a US version of FT that I could read but it didn't include comments. Oh well.
However, besides the damage that jogging (did you ever see a happy jogger?), fanatical exercise and non-human diets these anti-smoking extremists tend to go for, there's something else even more damaging that will shorten their life span considerably–stress.
And stress will kill you…usually earlier than you're scheduled for.
It happens to anyone or any group of people who rally to a "cause". These folks are so stressed out about those who smoke (anything) that most of them will be having heart attacks by the time their 45.
Okay, so I gave myself a Christmas present in 2005, quit smoking and I never looked back. I'm even glad I did it, but I did that for myself and certainly didn't get fanatical about it. I couldn't afford the stress.
Funny you said that, I have seen lots of cases, including my own, that seems to have been triggered by extreme trauma. As the stress affects your immune system, mine seemed to collapse after my husbands sudden death, any cancer goes to your weakest point. Two friends whose daughter killed herself both developed cancer and there are many others. I assume it causes other 'smoking related' deaths too, probably the biggest killer of all but no nice gravy train for the fanatics to jump on.
Seeing as the Antis love quoting "life shortening" figures, I have heard tell somewhere that stress knocks an average of ten years off a lifespan. [Whatever a lifespan is..] I mentioned it to Doc and he agreed with me but said it was probably a conservative figure.
I was afraid there would be trouble with that link! When I was first used it, the page demanded a subscription. Being a bit of a stubborn bugger I tried searching for the title ["Tobacco killjoys are less healthy than the smokers they ban"] and the first result brought me straight in. I don't know how that worked!