The Perfect Humanoid Symbol, 22
With the precious splendid talent of artists to hit the target and get a punchy message across, a recent public interest TV advertising campaign has recapped it so: “A smoker is a fool!” If only it were all; the smoker is not only a fool, but an arsehole too: one that dares to shit in the face of others, that offends as a divine right and as if it were nothing. Some say one ought to sympathise with the addicted as he or she may be so due to his or her troubles. Not at all. Because the non−addicted endures the very same troubles without usurping the air breathed by others and shitting in it. Smoking is an inhuman act based on a subhuman state. The smoker is a poor thing whose misery doesn’t deserve any simpathy, though, as it entails harassing others, other than self, to the extent of such misery. Therefore, in personal terms, the smoker does not deserve any mercy, because what he or she is capable of places him or her below any minimum requirements to deserve it. The only chance to give him or her is not personally deserved and it is that last glimmer that cannot be denied to anyone solely in the interest of society, to prevent it from facing the fatal consequences of the total and final loss of hope. But this does not imply in any way that society must confine itself to a passive attitude.
The smoker, whether suffering from “winning” personality or not, behaves as a poxy plague−spreader anyhow: wherever he or she passes by, the smoker fouls, infects, and then it’s up to the others to endure, to clean up if they wish, and it’s their bloody business anyway. So all these others should enforce on the smoker the discipline he or she deserves: first, it is up to the one who dirties to clean up where he or she has dirtied, and second, even earlier, it is up to the one who dirties to stop dirtying; hence, first, it ough to be the smoker to mind about avoiding contaminating and fouling, and instead he or she behaves as a poxy “winning” personality anyway; second, he or she ought to quit and redeem self from that degradation at once, and instead the smoker protects it with his or her, and those of others, life and honour.
