Smoking is cool!

Lets face it smoking is cool! Why else would otherwise rational intelligent human beings purposefully and knowingly inhale toxic addictive poisonous smoke for the pure enjoyment of the experience? In the day and age we live in with all the advertisements and government statistics telling us how we are destroying our health and ruining our lives if we smoke then surely there is no reason for anyone with half a brain cell to start smoking.


If that is the case then why do so many teenagers start smoking in the first place, (I am not implying for one moment that it is only teenagers who smoke but this as far as I can decipher is the age at which most people either try or start to smoke). I expect that if I asked the question “why do teenagers start smoking?” to most people in the street I would get three main responses, peer pressure, stress, and appearance (ie because it looks cool!). When it comes to peer pressure I can honestly say that anytime I decided to smoke while in my teens, it was never once due to other people pressuring me or bullying me into it, and I think I can say with a high level of assurance that none of my friends from school would say that they had smoked for those reasons either.


So if teenagers don’t start smoking because of peer pressure then obviously its due to them feeling stressed right? And we all know that smoking makes us less stressed (this is a complete lie of course, scientifically it does the opposite and the only reason people who have smoked for years find it a stress relief is because it is a comfort, and so if you have not smoked before it will not have and stress relieving effects). I can say without a doubt in my mind that a teenager who starts smoking will increase their stress levels considerably. I have a vivid memory of my older sister performing a precarious balancing act at the top of the stairs in our house, half her torso out the window in a vain attempt to disguise the fact that she was having a cigarette. This sort of behaviour along side, incessant incense burning, copious quantities of chewing gum, excessive hand washing and wearing enough body spray to suffocate a rhino (I must point out that I am not in any way insinuating that my sister was guilty of these behaviours I believe she drew the line at hanging out the window, just in case your reading this.) in order to hid the fact that you are smoking from the parental units can in no way be conducive to a less stressful life.


The third reason most people will assume teenagers start smoking for is ‘to look cool’, which to an extent is true, its rebellious especially now we are being told its illegal in most places and if your under 18. If you are smoking underage you are being cool, you are being ‘bad’ and teenagers love this feeling. But despite all this the overwhelming response you will get if you actually ask a teenager why they smoke will be ‘just coz’! and that is the sad truth of it. We smoke because we do, no rational behind it, no social, psychological or scientific reason we just do and that is that.

Infidelity cont.

I found this poem that seemed a very apt continuation of the theme of infidelity:


In Defence of Adultery

"We don't fall in love: it rises through us
the way that cirtain music does-
whether a symphony or ballad-
and it is sepia-coloured,
like tea that stains as it creeps up
the tiny tube-like gaps inside
a cube of sugar lying by a cup.
Yes, love's like that: just when we least
needed or expected it
a part of us dips into it
by chance or mishap and it seeps
through our capillaries, it clings
inside the chambers of the heart
to atriums and ventricles. We're
victims, we say: merely vessels
drinking the vanilla scent
of this one's skin, the lustre
of another's blue eyes skilfully
darkened with bistre. And whatever
damage might result we're not
to blame for it: love is an autocrat
and won't be disobeyed.
Sometimes we almost manage
to convince ourselves of that."

'Julia Copus'

Infidelity

Before the lecture last week on infidelity I had a lecture for my Myth modual in which we had been discussing incest within myths (I know I'm diverting off course but bare with me). This got me thinking about infidelity within ancient myths and while looking through some of my liturature for the aformentioned modual I came to the conclusion that there must be something amazingly human about this concept of infidelity.


Myths, especially (but not exclusively) those of Greece, Rome and the Norse mythology, are full of infidelity. Most of the Greek myths have Zeus sleeping with mortal women and on the odd occasion other goddess's, while he is married to Hera (who is his sister by the way). It is the fact that these occurances of infedelity appear in the myths, and the frequency that they do, that made me curious. Myth were almost always created to explain the unexplainable aspects of life, to give a sense of safty and security. If your Gods are flitting around being unfaithful to their wives/husbands there has to be a reason why, the myths would not exist other-wise. This brings me to the conclusion that the composers of these tales needed to explain and justify this human concept of infidelity. This is not just a one of occurance either this need to explain the desire for humans to be unfaithful sexually has eliments in every countries mythology. It is such a crutial idea to us that we have been trying to rationalise it since we have had structured society.


From thinking about the mythological concepts and stories of infidelity I started to think about it as a religious concept. Being brought up a Catholic the idea of infidelity was always put across as a very negative one, by both my religion and society. I was discussing these thoughts with a friend who suggested that more modern societies and religions have tried to create negative conotations with the idea of infidelity in an attempt to exact control over people. If, as I have suggested, infidelity is as important to human nature as it appears then the ability to control peoples actions surrounding this gives the ability to control almost any aspect of poeple.


The thought that a topic as common as infidelity is so important to humans is one I find a little disconcerting. The fact that sexual desires and needs are essential to humans and human nature is one I don't think many people would dispute but within this I find it hard not to conclude that infidelity is almost as important even if it is not in quite the same way. It is an odd concept but you can not deny that it is one that always has and always will be important to religion, society and individual life. I am not interested in the slightest about judging the ins and outs of the moral side of infidelity I am just trying to explore why it is always such a major topic for humans.


It may not be much of a conclusion but all I can say is that there must be something intrinsic within human being to want a solution to the idea of infidelity and although I am not sure what this intrinsic need is, I can't deny that it is there.