Smoking is
cool. Maybe you
don't agree, and that's fine -- but let's just take a look at the matter at hand, here.
1)
Smoking gives the
smoker additional time to formulate his or her sentences. A
smoker, when their mind briefly fails, does not need to
hem and haw, or engage in
excessive "umm"ing. Instead, they merely have to take a
slow drag on their
cigarette, exhaling that lovely
pale blue smoke before continuing the conversation, their
resources replenished by their brief period of
contemplation.
2)
Smoking also gives any
conversationalist the equivalent of a
laser pointer. A cigarette can be used to enhance
gesticulations, point to
examples or direct an orchestra on the fly.
3)
Smoking, due to the sheer amount of
lobbying against it, is counter-societal. When you're young, is there anything cooler than saying, "
Fuck the man!" by slowly killing yourself? Well, maybe there is. Still, we should take a quick look to
Hollywood, and one of their more attractive
heroes:
The guy who may as well already be dead and therefore doesn't care about the consequences of his actions and is able to move with perfect freedom for the remainder of what will likely be a tragically short life. This character is the compelling lead in countless
action movies, as well as being used to more
dramatic effect on occasion. This guy, or girl,
smokes more often than not, or at least has some sort of
lethal habit --
drinking and
drugs are common. The inclination towards
self-destruction is powerful material.
4)
Smoking allows even the
laziest of people to apply some sort of
style to their lives: everybody smokes differently, and the cultivation of personal
technique occurs throughout all of the years for which they smoke. Some people have eerily
hypnotic ways of both
inhaling and
exhaling, as well as actually holding the cigarette.
5) Ultimately,
smoking sends the message -- whether subliminal or conscious -- that the
smoker is aware of and unafraid of
mortality, which is a powerful
attraction for people in an age in which
neuroses ride free upon the shoulders of nearly everybody that you meet, most of which stem from the
unavoidability of
death. This isn't
valid, of course, as most
smokers, particularly
young ones, aren't truly aware that what they're doing will
kill them. This does not stop the image from being
projected, however.
6)
Forbidden fruit: From the
Garden of Eden to the present day,
rebels all the way. Most people who pick such
fruit are cool. Why? Because it takes a
cool person to
thwart authority. Take a look at
Prometheus.
This is just my
theory on why smoking is so widely considered to be
cool that organisations spend money in an attempt to
de-program this perception. How else to explain all of the
PSAs with the same theme: Cool kid talks about how cool he is and is cool while lame kids talk about how cool they are but are lame. The cool kid doesn't smoke and the lame kids do. This is such a
basic attempt at
propoganda that it doesn't have to be addressed in detail.
Yes, I am a
smoker.