Stogie Commentary: Good Manners Up In Smoke

I recently spent four days in Las Vegas and I’ve come to this conclusion: Something about smoking makes many normally considerate people extremely rude.  As cigar smokers have gotten more and more considerate when they light up, some non-smokers have decided to throw good manners out the door.

I realize that smoking isn’t as accepted as it once was, and I do my best to be considerate of those who may not appreciate the fantastic aroma of premium tobacco.  Nowadays, when I’m somewhere that smoking isn’t to be expected, I usually ask around to make sure smoking doesn’t bother anyone. “Mind if I smoke?” is a question that cigar enthusiats are accustomed to asking these days before lighting up.

Too bad smokers’ increasingly courteous behavior isn’t being returned by all non-smokers. As my trip to Vegas revealed, rudeness towards smokers seems to have become acceptable.

Repeatedly, I found people complaining out loud, pretending I couldn’t hear their complaints.  This was apparent even where smoking is the norm, on the  vice-filled casino floor—one of the few “public” places left to light up a cigar in this country—and often when I had been smoking well before the obnoxious complainer had arrived.

For some unfortunate reason, rudeness towards smokers has become acceptable, even as our our culture has become more and more tolerant of other differences and personal choices. Tolerance and even basic manners, it seems, goes out the window when tobacco is involved.

Maybe it’s all that propaganda about smoking that floods our televisions, radios, and newspapers. People have been told that one second of tobacco smoke will instantly put them in the hospital.  This despite the fact that it takes years, if not decades, of “second-hand smoke” before any statistically meaningful increase in risk takes place.

Add to that all the hyped-up fear and law after law—be it a smoking ban, a paternalistic regulation, or a punitive tax hike—that treats smokers like second-class citizens, and we’ve got society where bigotry against smokers is acceptable. (A “bigot,” after all, is defined as “a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially: one who regards or treats the members of a group with hatred and intolerance.”)

While cause and effect are hard to determine, no matter what the reason, it seems we have turned a corner as a society. Smoking, once accepted as a personal choice that adults can make for themselves, has unfortunately become a subject where prejudice and narrow-mindedness are increasingly accepted.

Bad manners may be the result now, but if history is any indicator, as prejudice and bigotry become more widespread, this anti-smoking mindset will become increasingly entrenched and institutionalized in our laws and culture. It’s not a pleasant conclusion, but the sooner we realize and accept it, the better chance we have of stopping it.

-Patrick S

photo credit: Amazon.com