A Bit of Foolishness: Pipe Smoking and World Peace

[aldecaker]

Oh. Well, we're doomed, then.

 

[npod]

If it was a sedative in the pipe, then yes, world peace would possible.

Again with the generalities, for some it's a hobby. For others, myself included, smoking is how I keep my nicotine level up. Still others make a living or at least augment income by catering to the smokers and the hobbyists. Smoking for me is a vice, possibly an addiction. There also exists a group I refer to as "dabblers." Dabblers are the members who resent being called a smoker, partake of maybe a bowl or two a week, deny enjoying the nicotine kick (no matter how small). Still another classification, since we seem to need to sort ourselves and others into manageable groupings, I'd call the "obsessives." These members buy and store tobaccos, terrified of losing out, having their comfort zone adversely impacted or ... possibly hoping to cash-in on blends which are no longer to be available.
Me? I'm a smoker. I simply enjoy nicotine. My "compulsion" or vice, could hardly fit the definition of "hobby."

Best summary ever. Good on you Warren.

 

[warren]

Oh, there's profit in war and peace. One just needs to be imaginative enough to figure out where it is and how to get it. There's a lot of money to be made and power to be gained in the "anti-war" profession. Perhaps as much in "war profiteering." But, like soldiers the demonstrators are not the one's reaping the monetary rewards.
Killing, legal and illegal is just the nature of man, no on/off switch. People kill for a number of logical reasons and illogical. We humans have a propensity for justifying killing each other, profit, convenience (aged parents, unwanted children), illegal passing (road rage), trespassing, mental problems (a subjective and social decision), politics, real or imagined wrongs of all types, it's all in the prospective of the killer. We kill legally in wartime and "peace", sometimes happily and gleefully, sometimes with hesitation and remorse and ... often under color of law.
We develop new words and laws (late term abortions, euthanasia for the aged or inconvenient/expensive to maintain). Situational ethics allow us to justify all kinds of killing and come up with new, subtle and often benign sounding words to describe simple killing. Such makes it easier for society to accept but, it's killing none the less.
The threat of mutual destruction is all that kept us in business during the cold war. Now we are threatened by certain societies who are not afraid of death, welcome it in fact. "Mutual assured destruction" will soon not be a safeguard once some of them become nuclear enabled. Then, the human race will indeed be seriously threatened.

 

[seacaptain]

Dunhill factory bombed during the 1940 blitz.

 

[Waning Embers]

We develop new words

DEFENESTRATION
noun

1.

formal/humorous

the action of throwing someone or something out of a window.

"death by defenestration has a venerable history"
I find it amazing that that happened enough to actually have a word for it.

 

[warren]

Usually employed to make the homicide appear to be an accident or suicide.

 

[Waning Embers]

Ah, clever.

 

[warren]

I've only heard the word uttered once in my lifetime though, in court.

 

[brian64]

I find it amazing that that happened enough to actually have a word for it.

Likely what happened to James Forrestal and Frank Olson.

 

[oldtoby]

Indeed. :wink:

 

[winton]

On a TV show, the hero called the police and said they need to come and pickup a burglar that he just tossed out his window. When the police arrived, they asked how many times he tossed him out the window. The answer was that he was not counting.

 

[seldom]

This thread took a weird turn. Defenestration uses the Latin word "fenestra" which means window. Window in German is Fenster, in French fenêtre, in Dutch venster. I imagine Defenestration would be more readily understood by those with knowledge of Latin or who speak these other languages.

Back to world peace and smoking pipes. I believe every war is a natural resources war sometimes dressed up as something else (religion, nationalism, you name it). As human population increases and resources become more scarce I imagine that the future will see more war. I wish it weren't so. No amount of pipe smoking will change that but perhaps it'll ease the pain a bit.

 

[mso489]

War making has drawn extraordinary creativity and imagination from the species to maximize fatalities, injuries, and general misery intended, at least, for the adversary. It is conceivable (if not probable) that similar exertions could be put toward avoiding war. There have been some clever low key examples, like entwining the economies of adjoining countries to make it expensive to the wealthier members in each to cause tensions. Nobler pursuits sometimes generate rather than quash military action. It's tricky and subtle to wage peace, much harder than sending in the troops. Most of us can't quite imagine it is at all possible, which illustrates the point.

 

[johnbarleycorn]

Well just think if some world leader brought up the Frank method. That would be the end of any notion about world peace!

 

[seldom]

Well just think if some world leader brought up the Frank method. That would be the end of any notion about world peace!

 

[seldom]

I'll at least hope that world peace is possible. I don't want my sons fighting any rich man's war (they all are). My father is a war vet, too bad for him no "bone spurs", and he told me what I need to know about it. War is to be avoided so far as it is possible. We must do better.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Slops, used wash water and other more unpleasant matter was defenestrated more often than people. Some times it was left over whirled peas.

 

[seldom]

Wikipedia