If You Won’t Change Your Mind, Then We’ll Just Have To Change Your Mind For You
-
Kevin Godbee - Aug 2, 2011
- 5 min read
By C. R. S. Lyles
I saw a commercial today promoting some new show on Nickelodeon called Victorious. I have no idea what the show is about, nor do I have any interest in it whatsoever (as I presume, probably correctly, that it is merely the network’s answer to "tween wave" drivel that the Disney channel continues to spew out), but the marketing focus of the commercial held me riveted.
The commercial preceded to promote the "hits" from the show, songs which included "Freak The Freak Out" and "My Best Friend’s Brother". And you know what the really sad part about this is?
Its most-watched episode had 6.1 million viewers.
Now, while I lament the loss of my childhood to this sort of trash as much as the next post-Generation Xer, it’s simple kindergarten deduction that leads to the inevitable conclusion that in a world where the Rugrats and Doug have been replaced by a sluttily-clad thirteen-year-old singing about her best friend’s brother, something has gone seriously awry.
Which finally brings me to my point: Washington is trying to become the first state to outlaw all forms of tobacco, Colorado is trying to become the first state to legalize marijuana for recreational use, and all across the country there are privately- and state-funded "cessation laboratories" popping up to "investigate the psychological processes that contribute to continued smoking despite the high personal and societal costs of tobacco use."
The phone is ringing for you, America.
It’s George Orwell, and he’s asking for his plot devices back.
Using a Google search that took me about forty-five seconds total, four major cessation centers caught my interest. Another minute and a half of searching turned up many more.
The four that popped out at me the most, however, were:
1.) USC Tobacco Education and Materials Lab (TEAM Lab)
2.) Rutgers University’s Smoking Cessation Laboratory
3.) The Prevention and Treatment in Clinical Health Center at UT, El Paso, and
4.) The UF Smoking Laboratory and Clinic.
Now, this is more-than just slightly creepy to me in many ways.
Any moderately-intelligent, half-asleep train spotter can tell that the state and federal government has been trying to curtail the American public’s behavior for years (since the beginning of this country, actually), but to attempt to coerce its own people to adhere to certain principles while masquerading as a free and independent country whose only intent with these centers is for mere medicinal research goes beyond trying to curtail behavior and oversteps the boundary between democracy and fascism.
Check this out and tell me you don’t hear echoes of World War II propaganda:
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/SfAxUpeVhCg" width="480" height="360" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]
Is it weird that I see "Best Dramatic Commercial" joining the list of awards that the Academy gives out each year? I think this one might have just enough emotional pull to beat out Sarah McLachlan’s BC SPCA commercial.
Anyway, the above commercial was sponsored by Quit Victoria, an Australian joint initiative of the Cancer Council Victoria, the Department of Health of Australia, the National Heart Foundation, and VicHealth.
It really is quite amazing what you can find with a minute and a half and decent WiFi signal.
Quit Victoria is obviously one of the larger state-sponsored anti-smoking initiatives, but the principle behind its motivations and the cessation centers that now reside in just about every state is the same.
As I’ve stated before, it’s all about control.
And in a down economy, in a continued state of war and social turmoil at home, control is the name of the game, for without it, (gasp) Americans might actually have to work for what they earn instead of depend on the government to continually bail them out. And should that awful thing happen? Why, Americans might just come to realize they never really needed their government as much as they thought they did.
Or that new 3D flatscreen that Sony just released.
Or that new Call of Duty game.
Or that new flatware set that’s on sale this weekend only down at Kohl’s.
You see, what I’ve come to realize in my time as a smoker is that there’s something behavioral about the people who choose to inhale tobacco or enjoy products which use tobacco.
We know what we’re doing when we take that first puff or taste that chunk of chaw for the first time.
We know the risks, we know the dangers, but we do it anyway.
Why?
Because it’s more than just the smoking itself that draws us to it; it’s the lifestyle.
For centuries, smoking was considered a casual and often social affair, but now that we have dedicated facilities to help us stop this behavior, we find it harder to be social or casual with our choice of leisure activity.
There’s an article that was published several years ago that outlined the social nature behind smoking (and actually was one of the articles that planted the idea in my head to become a journalist). Entitled "Learning To Smoke", it chronicled a writer named Tom Chiarella’s month-long goal to reach smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.
However, the point of the article is less about the smoking and more about the culture. And that’s what the real argument is between the anti-s and the smoker is.
We smokers are a cultural group. We fulfill every criterion that defines a cultural group, yet we find ourselves ostracized in a world that prides itself on political correctness and tolerance. If you think that this statement is a little extreme, go driving on a rainy day and see how many huddles of smokers are packed beneath the various offerings of shelter since no indoor facility allows smoking inside anymore.
But, then again, this is a world of cessation centers we live in, a world where old episodes of Doug aren’t even available on Netflix and the hit song this week is by a band named LMFAO.
How about we make a deal, America? You lift the ban on the indoor smoking thing and we’ll quietly take our pipes and cigars and packs of cigarettes inside so that our disgusting habit won’t bother you anymore, and in exchange you take your nanny-state garbage, your cessation centers, and lifeless, bland, uninspired "creations" back to the market researchers and ad artists who all had projections that said we would love them and just leave us the hell alone.
Carter R. Lyles is a student at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, FL and at the University of Florida in Gainesville. He is a journalism/psychology major, and in addition to his work at Pipes Magazine, he has contributed articles to The Alligator, Thursday Night Magazine, and The Fine Print. |
Written by Kevin Godbee
8 Responses
Recent Posts
Ok, so it’s that time of year, as we all know. Family feasts, houses, yards, and big trees festooned with lights and dangling ornaments, just high enough to keep the cats from reaching a paw into the greenery. It’s also the time of year when your pipe-smoking-significant other makes vast hints about a new pipe. That’s to be expected since he or she was a good boy or girl during the year. Yes, ladies smoke pipes, too. Oh, you want an example? Okay, try Actress Greta Garbo, Millicent Fenwick, Mary Frith, and my late grandmother (who died when she was 93) dipped snuff and smoked a cob occasionally. So now that we have settled that the gentler side of life will puff a pipe too, let’s move on to the upcoming biggest holiday of all. Of course, that huge event is brought to us by the hefty fellow in a red suit, puffing his pipe all the way in a sled filled with presents, being led by a reindeer with a red nose. Or some such. That’s Santa Claus, of course. Becoming a bit more serious, Christmas is such a wonderful time for families and friends. It’s also quite special for pipe puffers. For many of us, this brings up a nostalgic look back to our pipe-smoking or cigar-smoking friends who have died during the current year. A great journalist pal whom I often joined in a local brick-and-mortar pipe and cigar shop. I puffed my pipe, and occasional cigar, as he enjoyed a cigar. He died in October and will be missed. On the happier side of things, Christmas is also a time when mind workers of the world renew their collections with fresh additions. Pundit included. A French passion has overtaken Pundit, from reading more Albert Camus, a heavy cigarette smoker, as were many French intellectuals of a certain time. Instead of cigarettes many of us prefer the more relaxed enjoyment of pipes for that “calm and objective judgment” in the comings and goings of the world. This brings me to French pipes. While visiting France once in the long ago, I happened by a “Tabac” shop in Paris, Tabac Des Vosges. I purchased a beauty of a Chacom bent. I also later bought a Ropp made from ancient briar. To learn more about the dawn of briar pipes and beginnings, take a peek at a well-done piece by Davin Hylton in Pipe Line on April 12, 2023, on Saint-Claude, France, the birthplace of briar. Also in the long back when, on a cold Christmas afternoon, Pundit wandered into an Atlanta bricks and mortar pipe shop to look around. There, resting in an enclosed glass counter was an exquisite Comoy. An older gent, smoking a beautiful bent, asked me if I wanted to look at that pipe. It had a $100 price tag. A college student working for a grocery store chain to help with college tuition at the time, Pundit didn’t have one hundred cents, let alone a C note! I declined and found a $5 basket pipe. A Christmas tradition had just begun. Since that early time, Pundit has made it a holiday ritual to either reward himself, or a special friend, with pipe or tobacco. A Claudio Cavicchi would be nice. Just sayin.’ And now for a couple of December-born Pipe Smokers of the Past: Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born on Dec. 30, 1865, and died on Jan. 18, 1936. I always prefer to believe the best of everybody; it saves so much trouble—Rudyard Kipling. Martin Van Buren, born Dec. 5, 1782, and died July 24, 1862, U.S. President, 1837-1841 As to the presidency, the two happiest days of my life were those of my entrance upon the office and my surrender of it—Martin Van Buren. And one more note to recall a deceased World War II veteran who loved William Somerset Maugham, the author. Maugham, a pipe smoker, was born in Paris, France, on Jan. 25, 1874, and died on Dec. 16, 1965. One cool afternoon as the veteran and I talked while sitting in his backyard patio, he looked off into the distance as if studying something. Nothing in particular. Just looking. He turned to me and said if I wanted to learn about life, “read Somerset Maugham.” I did. It wasn’t until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say, ‘I don’t know’ –W. Somerset Maugham And now a Parting Shot: Any day with an old friend with pipes and tobacco is a good day.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 637. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Nate King. Most people know of Nate as an excellent pipe artisan. He also has an honorary Master of Pipes degree from the Chicagoland Pipe Collectors Club, and is a member of the prestigious Confrérie des Maitres Pipiers de Saint-Claude. To be inducted into the Confrérie, this past May Nate travelled to Saint-Claude, France with master tobacco blender G.L. Pease, who was also inducted. It was quite a time in France, and at the ceremony. We’ll hear all about those adventures on the show. At the top of the show we’ll continue the virtual tour of Brian’s pipe collection with six of his Satou Dublin-shape pipes.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 636. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Barry Kane. Barry started smoking a pipe in 1961 when he was 14-years old. Back then it seemed like everybody smoked, and you could buy pipes and tobacco just about anywhere. Barry is a true old-school pipe smoker, sticking to just one blend. See if you can guess which one before listening. At the top of the show Brian will give his take on Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s purchase of Mac Baren and Sutliff Tobacco and their announcement that they will be shut down.
There’s a pipe in my collection that I cannot bring myself to smoke, though I’ve had it for more years than I care to recall. It’s old, or shall I say, well experienced; that experience, that oldness came to it long before it was in my possession. The pipe is an old Comoy’s Grand Slam from the 1940s. The shape (#93), a slightly canted, stack billiard (sometimes referred to as a Belgian) is right up my alley, and it’s a beautiful example of it. It came to me with some wear and tear; nothing unusual for an old pipe, but more the signs of one that has been well loved, smoked a lot, treated as a favorite tool, cherished, in a sense, by frequent use. It’s the pipe equivalent of a vintage car that’s been driven a lot, enjoyed fully and maintained adequately, rather than one kept in a spotless garage, dusted and detailed weekly, brought out only for leisurely Sunday drives, or to be ogled behind the ropes at the next Concours d’Elegance. When it arrived, those uncounted years ago, it wanted a little restoration. Nothing dramatic needed to be done to it, but the stem was oxidized, the finish a little dingy. The cake was even and fairly thin, and the airway was relatively clean, both signs that its previous owner cared for it, but the bowl’s surface was a little drab and dull. It took little effort to reveal its beauty, to show the lovely contrasted stain and interesting grain beneath the old wax. I often think I should do before and after photos of pipes that I work on, but those thoughts always come after the work’s been done. This one would have been a great illustration of how years of handling that can sometimes make a pipe more beautiful, can other times make it just look grungy. Once I’d cleaned up the externals, it was time to address the inside bits. I approach this a little bassackwards, I realize. It would be more sensible to take care of the inside before addressing the outside, but it’s how I roll. If an old pipe isn’t pretty to look at, it’s unlikely that I’ll care much about it, and cleaning is usually the hardest part, or at least the most boring part of any restoration for me. Alcohol and pipe cleaners. Lots of pipe cleaners. That’s why I leave it for last. Sometimes, I’ll even give a pipe a test smoke before a deep cleaning, just for a point of reference. I gave it a sniff to get an idea of what I was up against, and it stopped me cold. There in that bowl was an aroma that I had not smelled in decades. My head was instantly filled with memories of being in the back room of a fabled Berkeley tobacconist’s shop where I stumbled upon a few jars of long discontinued blends. One of them, a blend called Forty and Eight, had the most engaging and unusual scent of any tobacco I’d stuck my schnoz into. It was sweet, but not in a candy store way. There were none of the usual vanilla, cherry, berry or anise notes of typical aromatics, nothing that could be compared to aftershave or deodorant soap, but something almost musky, a little earthy, something exotic. The shop’s owner couldn’t tell me what was in it, how, or where it had been produced. The old blend had been retired before he’d bought the place. The printed catalogue gave no clues, either, other than being overprinted with the word “DISCONTINUED” in bold, rubber-stamp type. (And, I don’t recall it as being “highly aromatic” as the description indicates.) There was still quite a bit in the jar. Being, at that point, an intrepid explorer of all kinds of tobaccos, whether I thought I’d like them or not, I had to give it a try. It was burly based, but also comprised a good measure of virginia leaf, and maybe some other varieties; I didn’t have enough experience at the time to really pick it apart. But, that aroma was unlike anything I’d experienced before or since. It was something now completely lost to time. Until it wasn’t. Memories are powerful things, and there is no sense more tightly bound to memory than our sense of smell. One whiff was all it took to carry me back in time, conjuring a vivid recollection of something long submerged in the inky depths of a subconscious mind. Look, I know as well as anyone that pipes are meant to be smoked, and that many feel it almost sacrilegious to have a pipe and not set it to its intended task. In this case, I simply can’t. I won’t. Ever. Rationally, I am fairly certain this pipe would probably be a great smoke. It was too well loved by its previous caretaker to be anything less than that. My choice not to smoke it is an emotional one, not something rational. Of the thousands of pipes that have passed through my hands over the years, this is the only one to create such a singular and vivid, almost Proustian recollection of temps perdu, of lost time. It revivified a long dormant memory that is mine, and mine alone, and that’s enough. I keep it in a drawer with other old English pipes. In some ways, it’s nothing special, just a nice old pipe. I don’t lavish it with any particular care that arguably befits the hidden treasure that it holds. It’s not in a special box, or displayed preciously in a glass cabinet. Every once in a while, I take it out, point my nose bowlwards, and every time, those memories return just as powerfully as they did the first time. I have no idea how long it’s been since its last owner smoked it, but in the years I’ve had it, there seems to have been very little degradation of the aroma, and that’s […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 635. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with James Ravenwood. James is the boutique tobacco blender of Ravenwood Blends. His blending started out as a fun hobby, and he now has professionally packaged commercially available products with some great tin art. Part of his interest in pipe smoking goes back to fond memories of a retired Navy Veteran that lived on his street while he was growing up that would sit in his driveway smoking a pipe all day. Later, in 2011 he began smoking pipes and soon after started experimenting with mixing different tobaccos. His other hobby, that he has been doing for 30 years, is photography. He takes wonderful photos of outdoor spaces, and still life pictures of pipes and tobacco. You can see them on his Instagram @thebriarfellowship. At the top of the show we’ll have an Ask the Pipemaker segment with renowned pipe artisan Jeff Gracik.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 634! Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Warren Ertle. Warren is an extremely accomplished musician with a PhD in music. He started early as a percussionist in sixth grade. Later his grandmother got him a cheap Casio keyboard which he taught himself to play. He started playing in blues bands in high school, and has been a pianist with jazz big bands for years. Even though he was already a professional musician, he took his first real piano lesson when he enrolled in college with his studies in classical music. He is of course a pipe smoker. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA.
Great artical it has really given me something to think about.
I found the article you mentioned: http://www.esquire.com/features/learning-to-smoke-0308
Very interesting.
That was heart wrenching. The look on that child’s face characterizes my feelings every time a politician starts to speak. It’s all about money after all. The politicians figure with the Health Care Bill they can profit from anyone who tries to quit using tobacco . Banning tobacco guarantees that people will flock to the clinics to quit (?)comfortably and will also consume copious quantities of drugs until the DO quit. Raising taxes on tobacco maximizes their profits until tobacco is taxed out of existence, and they have marijuana to fall back on to re-addict the sheeple.
It seems people are stupid enough to be persuaded that smoking in the open air is a threat to non smokers while ignoring their children being sexualised at a young age by the TV they watch and the magazines they read in order to sell them more products – The threat to the children and society in general is not from the smokers.
Folks, Jussssssst relax. Everything will be fine. Someone will do all the hard things for you. Support China at every opportunity. Don’t bother writting your congressperson, it won’t do any good anyway. OH, by the way, your vote won’t count for much, it’s just one vote. Who cares if another ten jobs goes to Mexico, China or pickacountry? It’s too late. Be fair…trade with everyone. Just trussssssssst in me. Ssssssssssssmply relax.
/applause
Wow, that’s a terrible commercial. The article’s not any better. They’re both pretty hyperbolic, and the associations between the events aren’t established. Exactly how is the sexualizaton of young adults associated with the prohibition of our habit? I don’t see any evidence that Washington state is outlawing tobacco when I search for it. Could we have some proof, maybe a link to the proposed bill?
Your evidence that the U.S. is outlawing tobacco is an Australian commercial? You’re nowhere near backing up your claim there. You’re not even on the same continent.
Your final bargain isn’t going to convince anyone, either. I don’t know of any place that won’t let you take your smoking items back inside your own house or other private property. I’m not aware of any bans that aren’t directed at public places.
Seriously, I smoke a pipe, sometimes cigarettes, and occasionally cigars. I don’t like the scare campaign leveled against my hobby/addiction, but I don’t think my freedoms have been tromped on very often, either (NYC’s ban on smoking in public parks being the possible exception). This article did not convince me of anything other than: the author needs to learn some critical thinking skills and apply them to their writing. Pipesmagazine.com usually has some eloquent writers, this example is far from being up to snuff. I’d rather the articles would be endorsing the hobby I love, rather than trying to frighten folks about a largely imaginary threat. If you must run articles that are essentially scare ads, could they please at least make sense?
You are right our TV’s have turned into 1984 with flat screens on the wall and constant news drivel dividing the country and trying to keep us in wars. News that is all liberal or all conservative to keep the country divided and conquered. My son and I are opening a tobacco lounge with Hooka for the 18 and up to enjoy and have a place for social gathering. The 18 to 21 age groups have no place for social gatherings until they are 21 and can go start drinking alcohol. Maybe they will discuss politics and social events and think for themselves while not being under the influence of intoxicants. Just what Washington doesn’t want to happen, people thinking for themselves and discussing their ideas with others. Pipe smoking at one time was viewed as an enjoyment of the college professor, engineer, scientist, and enjoyed by sailors and working men when they came home to relax after a day’s hard work. Let’s all bring back the right to relax and enjoy a smoke after a day of servitude.