Smoking as a Conservative Act
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As a recovering pseudo intellectual, I try not to overthink things.
I'm a liberal leaning independent and have the same enjoyment. How about we NOT politicize a pastime?
I don't belief "conservative" was being use in the political sense. The context indicates more a person averse to change/innovation.
Humor is in short supply in today’s age.
I was attending an event today and while at the bar, the bartender tells the following joke. “Two Irish men walked into a bar and then they left. It could happen”
One of the patrons get up, turns around and replies as he is leaving, “That jokes offensive.“
Humor… it’s not even for breakfast any longer.
The word "conservative" is not being used here in a modern American political context.
The article is packed with political references and seems to want to categorise pipe smoking as a conservative act.
It's a form of enjoyment that can't be replicated by other means, a thing in itself, independent of political connotation. I rather resent any attempt to capture it by those of a particular political preference.
It's a form of enjoyment that can't be replicated by other means, a thing in itself, independent of political connotation. I rather resent any attempt to capture it by those of a particular political preference.
Smoking tobacco is a vice.
Not nearly as much fun as chasing wild women or as destructive as booze, but still yet something you’d never be recommended by your angel mother rocking your cradle.
Pipe smoking is a vice on a level with black coffee by the gallons, while listening to high nostril nosed twang.
A minor vice, barely more than an indulgence, not worthy of repentance or confession, one even an elder of the church can do in public.
But extremism in the defense of liberty to smoke a pipe is no vice.
The wildest eyed puritanical gubbermint do gooder, taxes pipe tobacco at lower rates and coffee nothing but a small tariff, and ridiculously twangy twang is free on YouTube, even for our precious children, and never alleged to be subject to communist or fascist influence, and never threatened with bans.
A world of mail order $12 a pound delivered retail tax paid Kinston North Carolina bright leaf isn’t very liberal or conservative either one, you know?
Not nearly as much fun as chasing wild women or as destructive as booze, but still yet something you’d never be recommended by your angel mother rocking your cradle.
Pipe smoking is a vice on a level with black coffee by the gallons, while listening to high nostril nosed twang.
A minor vice, barely more than an indulgence, not worthy of repentance or confession, one even an elder of the church can do in public.
But extremism in the defense of liberty to smoke a pipe is no vice.
The wildest eyed puritanical gubbermint do gooder, taxes pipe tobacco at lower rates and coffee nothing but a small tariff, and ridiculously twangy twang is free on YouTube, even for our precious children, and never alleged to be subject to communist or fascist influence, and never threatened with bans.
A world of mail order $12 a pound delivered retail tax paid Kinston North Carolina bright leaf isn’t very liberal or conservative either one, you know?
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Briar Lee that may be the best thing you’ve ever written here! Absolutely!
But is pipe smoking really a vice?
It's calming when feeling anxious.
It can lift your spirit when depressed.
It's relaxing when stressed
It can bring joy when saddened.
It can slow you down when hurried.
It can focus your mind when you are distracted.
It's contemplative when you need to mull over the meaning of the universe.
It allows you to commune with Mother Nature, the world or whatever supreme being you choose to believe in.
Granted, cigarette smoking is a deadly vice and cigar smoking may be offensively stinky to some, but pipe smoking?
Pipe smoking is a gift from the world.
Any kind of smoking and especially chewing tobacco, is a vice you can be certain your angel mother is not partaking of in heaven, with our Savior on the streets of solid gold.
And you’ll never catch an Amish mother singing through her nose to delight her children while guitars chord and dobros and fiddles cry.
I don't like the idea of pipes used as a prop for political identity. Neither conservative, liberal or anything else.
Pipe smoking rather cuts through all walks of life and I don't think it belongs to any group more than another.
I am also very bored with polarization and contemporary identity politics.
Pipe smoking rather cuts through all walks of life and I don't think it belongs to any group more than another.
I am also very bored with polarization and contemporary identity politics.
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Personally, I don't care what anyone thinks about my pipe and what it stands for.'
Pipe smoking is like walking. It is something you do, not because you identify with the act, but because the act occurs in the process of doing something else.
Yes, as an interest it certainly can be consuming. But the actual smoking itself isn't done just to blow smoke. It is an ends to a means. No one feels the need to blow smoke for the sake of blowing smoke as the end point of some identity.
I think the point of the article - since I actually read it - was a case in humor, irony, and satire. One could have substituted any other idealogical word in the place of conservative and the article would most likely have worked as well.
This is to say, I think the author was quite surprised that given the state of their own beliefs, they found pipe smoking something they enjoyed. Amused because they thought it might be incongruent with their own thoughts on the world, they felt the need to reconcile the two things.
People are always surprised that more often than not something they thought wouldn't work for them, in fact does.
Pipe smoking is like walking. It is something you do, not because you identify with the act, but because the act occurs in the process of doing something else.
Yes, as an interest it certainly can be consuming. But the actual smoking itself isn't done just to blow smoke. It is an ends to a means. No one feels the need to blow smoke for the sake of blowing smoke as the end point of some identity.
I think the point of the article - since I actually read it - was a case in humor, irony, and satire. One could have substituted any other idealogical word in the place of conservative and the article would most likely have worked as well.
This is to say, I think the author was quite surprised that given the state of their own beliefs, they found pipe smoking something they enjoyed. Amused because they thought it might be incongruent with their own thoughts on the world, they felt the need to reconcile the two things.
People are always surprised that more often than not something they thought wouldn't work for them, in fact does.
As a proponent of meaningful conversation, I take exception to the appropriation of language, and how the meaning of words are twisted, especially for political gain. The term “conservative“ has been hijacked to require specific beliefs, including religious hegemony and nationalism. Groups such as the publisher of this article assert that the term now only applies to themselves, the philosophic blinders they wear, and in this case appears to mainly serve as a solicitation for financial donations.
From the linked essay:
But to me the most conservative element of smoking, especially when it comes to pipe smoking, is the deliberate effort it takes to stop what one is doing, fill the bowl, light, and enjoy the sensory experience of the smoke, either alone or in the company of a good friend. It is a contemplative, incarnational activity that stills and reunites the mind, body, and spirit, fosters quiet reflection, and becomes an act of conservative resistance to the hurried, efficiency-obsessed culture of modernity.
Good folks, pipe smoking, as described here, has nothing to do with political affiliation; it is, rather, about how one chooses to pace one's life.
I started smoking a pipe in college - over 50 years ago - because I thought it was an important part of being a "college man". (Neither of my parents, and only one of my four grandparents, used tobacco, so it was not something I grew up with.) I kept it up because I liked it. The fact that I try to keep a relaxed pace to my life has nothing to do with my political beliefs.
Enjoy your pipes.
But to me the most conservative element of smoking, especially when it comes to pipe smoking, is the deliberate effort it takes to stop what one is doing, fill the bowl, light, and enjoy the sensory experience of the smoke, either alone or in the company of a good friend. It is a contemplative, incarnational activity that stills and reunites the mind, body, and spirit, fosters quiet reflection, and becomes an act of conservative resistance to the hurried, efficiency-obsessed culture of modernity.
Good folks, pipe smoking, as described here, has nothing to do with political affiliation; it is, rather, about how one chooses to pace one's life.
I started smoking a pipe in college - over 50 years ago - because I thought it was an important part of being a "college man". (Neither of my parents, and only one of my four grandparents, used tobacco, so it was not something I grew up with.) I kept it up because I liked it. The fact that I try to keep a relaxed pace to my life has nothing to do with my political beliefs.
Enjoy your pipes.
I wasn't entirely sure. I feel like it might have been implied a bit, but what ever. Though in defense of anyone that is sure it's used in the political sense, something about politics brings out the sneaky slimy manipulative side of people that will readily abuse the concept of plausible deniability.
Also we're in a time period where identity politics it's annoyingly common. (as defined by how many people use politics to define their personality [and that's bipartisan], frankly tell me about your dog or cat and I feel like I'll know you better then if you tell me how you vote but whatever..... So it's not that wild to have a knee jerk reaction and assume that a highly politicized word is being used politically...
At least that's how I see it.
This is not political. Words have many possible meanings. The word Conservative here is being used in a non political sense of the word. Lol
Sure, it's technically a non-politcial quote....from a stealth-linked overtly politically conservative article and website that conflates the two meanings of "conservative".
I want to throw in my hat to say I still think the biggest threat to pipe tobacco is disinterest. And that broader more common use of pipes is the healthiest thing for the longevity of our hobby. I remember snuff almost getting mostly killed off because of that. The legislation that threatened it didn't even think of nasal snuff as it's own thing.
So personally I think we're better off not overly conflating pipe smoking with any type of person outside of things like thoughtful, smart, sexy, and exceptionally handy and competent in some way, oh and compellingly interesting too. If there were more pipe smokers it would make more sense for STG to keep more of the blends that they killed off.