History Does Repeat
They say history does not repeat itself! But it does sometimes! Those repeats in different disguises and many contemporaries fail to see the similarities to previous events.
I am not a smoker and I really do not like tobacco smoke in any kind or form (exception perhaps pipe). However, one of my best friends is a long-time and very considerate cigarette smoker.
Why A Witch Hunt!
First, like witches, smokers appear to be an easily identifiable minority in our society.
Second, smokers are being singled out and discriminated against.
Third, health arguments (prominently danger from second hand smoke) have been tremendously exaggerated. It is irrational. It is like superstition in the modern age. Cost to society arguments are not much better, because why not charge individual smokers.
The Road Of Small Steps Towards Serfdom
I just read that the German parliament is working on a comprehensive law to ban smoking from public spaces including restaurants etc. In Germany, after almost sixty years of democracy and freedom, there is still a strong tendency for the authoritarian state (Obrigkeitsstaat) to manifest itself. In Berlin, they elite knows what is good for the people and what is not.
How far have we come that we try to ban something that for most of the 20th century was considered hip to do? Just look at old movies. Smoking has been accepted for centuries by many nations with temporary or spatial exceptions. For the past two decades or so, Western governments have become more intrusive to order adults when and where they can smoke.
The massive litigation in the USA against tobacco industry is another example of how state governments in this case in collusion with trial lawyers tried to line their pockets with billions of dollars.
The ban on smoking in New York bars by mayor Bloomberg is another example of government meddling going overboard. The high taxes on cigarettes imposed by mayor Bloomberg are an insult to anyone’s intellect.
Trust The Individual!
One way how you identify an authoritarian, interventionist government, be it democratic or not, is by how much they trust the individual.
In principle, it should be left largely to private businesses and individuals to deal with the issue of smoking. For instance, restaurants and bars: if I do not like to be in a smoke filled environment I will not patronize such an establishment. Leave it to bar or restaurant owners how they want to attract paying guests.
Smoking adults should be convinced or persuaded to give up smoking not be forced or harassed by government!
Is This Only The Beginning?
You bet! If the citizens do not stop this kind of encroachment by government, others will follow! Is junk food next? Or motorcycle riding? Or paragliding? Why not restrict alcohol consumption more?
As they say in German “Wehret den Anfaengen!” (roughly, resist the outset). However, famous German lethargy “Traegheit” does not bode well. Or do the German citizens not trust their fellow citizens that is why they are wishing government to take care?
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