Tobacco isn't just some consumer product; tobacco is the founding product of the Western World.

If there is a human toll from tobacco use, it seems in the final analysis to be an even trade for the role that humans have extracted from this weed to cultivate an advanced civilization. The relationship between humans and the popular use of tobacco seems to fit quite nicely with the period in history known as The Enlightenment; a period that started near 400 years ago and, really, we are still living in today.

There's probably good reason for this. There's little or no anthropological history regarding tobacco, but I speculate that tobacco use was a key factor in humans climbing the evolutionary heights in their mastery of fire. I've outlined these speculations in other posts, so I won't belabor them, but given an absence of all technology, what better method is there for cultivating and carrying fire than simply keeping a flame alive by inhaling the fumes of a burned leaf through a controlled delivery system, like a pipe, or even a rolled-up leaf? It's certainly easier to sustain and much less cumbersome than a torch, even in bad weather conditions.

The very first product exported from America, before it was America, in 1607, was tobacco. This was in the Jamestown settlement, which would later become Virginia. Four of America's first five presidents came from Virginia.

The American Revolution, a sure loser against the mightiest military force in the world, The British Empire, triumphed. The French Revolution was inspired by the American Revolution. America was a sure loser again in the war of 1812, but found itself inextricably risen from the ashes of a burning White House and sure defeat to triumph again.

I can't tell the future. It's true; we certainly shake off old traditions like a snake disgarding an old skin, and perhaps that is what is happening with our reliance on tobacco. Looking at the past, though, please know this: there is no progress, there is no equality, and there is nothing resembling justice in the world without humans using tobacco.

The Geneva Convention specifically states that prisoners of war shall not be denied tobacco. In Victor Frankl's famous work regarding the attrocities of Holocaust, "Man's Search for Meaning", he specifically notes that among the injustices of the Nazis were not just starvation and murder, but the denial of tobacco.

We find ourselves in an odd position with tobacco use. The Enlightenment has been based upon, if nothing else, the realization that the phenomenological world is cause-and-effect and reductionist. When something takes place, look to the smaller building blocks of causation. Darwin's evolution teaches us that we are nothing more than elaborate carriers of genes to be reproduced.

Nature being nature, why should the equation stop there? Shouldn't it make sense that if genes can create the elaborate design of human beings, that human beings are part of the elaborate design of nature that creates something larger than themselves?

If this is so, are we justified in tossing tobacco's role in nature's scheme to the roadside?

We can, but please don't think that there won't be consequences. The enlightenment also carried itself on the injustice of slavery, and America's Founders allowed this injustice to continue because challenging the injustice would tear apart the very paradigm they were working to create. This was made evident in The Civil War, where more Americans (over 600,000) died than in any other war.

Slavery was an injustice and in direct contradiction to founding American principles. That founding injustice has caused hard reverberations in America that are still felt today, over 230 years from America's founding and over 140 years since The Civil War. Even more than 40 years after a full guarantee of Rights to blacks, and massive efforts toward racial equality, we are still reminded of the pains from the wounds.

Tobacco is a plant. It doesn't speak or know. It lives and the Free World is built upon its simple, organic being. We've deeply intertwined ourselves with it. This relationship has only disguised itself in appearance. Many of the products you buy off the storeshelf, in reality, have their financial origins in tobacco. A wall of denial has been firmly set in place to how much tobacco use contributes to government programs.

As well as it is hidden, and no matter how strange it seems in modern context, please know that when you drive down any modern, capitalist American street, you are still driving down Tobacco Road.

Only during the 20th century era of tobacco, "The Smoking Era", did the American lifespan increase from 48 years to 78 years.

Some would object that Hitler's anti-smoking stance was a simple accident of occasion, to be selectively scrutinized by those with a modern grudge.

I don't know how it happens, and I don't know the cause-and-effect relationship, but it seems to me that anti-smoking is a first symptom of tyranny. I don't think its an accident that anti-smoking is recognized by so few of us as the frontline against the larger problems to come. These problems seem to plague our nation.

What people like or don't like isn't relevant, and what the majority believes or doesn't believe isn't going to get anyone closer to the truth of the situation.

The world has not yet known a free society that is "tobacco free". The world won't know such a society anytime soon.

There's probably good reason for this!
http://www.buy-wow-gold.org.cn

so apparently mayaren1 is a sales shill! he/she/it is officially on my ignore list!

The bad news: Yes, Mayaren1 is a sales shill and should be ingnored.

The good news: I think the shill actually read my post and understood it!

Shame that Mayaren couldn't have made a similar, thoughtful point about Gold, rather than linking us into a ham-handed sales pitch.

Superb article Winston, thank you

The new cancer infecting the world now is the puritans, intolerance and hatred.
mandyv
freedom2choose.info we will fight the lies, we will fight for amendments, tolerant non-smokers and smokers welcome

more insanity

went to the bank this morning

drove up to the drive up window.. there is a sign posted There that reads...

NO SMOKING WITHIN 25 FEET OF THIS SIGN
RCW 70.160

in the drive up window???

Yes Jemeyes, Forces.org is a great site also and are not afraid to speak out either. There are so many people now fighting back. Our ban was for all public places, although some of our councils, I think feel they are above the law and are slapping signs where they deem fit OUTSIDE. No-one owns the air, least of all those with power inflated egos.

The judicial review is no longer going through, we currently have a fighting fund, which will help those brave few who have had to face the courts, albeit small amounts to each.
But lots more is going on,
This fight will go on across the globe. Good luck to everyone who helps to fight back.
Hope you like the videos,
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn6zye0nh8w

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mN-xDlsNXII Hamish Howitt Publican

"Chapter 70.160 RCW
Smoking in public places(formerly washington clean indoor air act)"

I guess it's true. It never was about clean air.