Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site druxm.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!drutx!druxm!toml From: toml@druxm.UUCP (TurnbowGV) Newsgroups: net.misc Subject: Re: Why Smoke? Message-ID: <869@druxm.UUCP> Date: Tue, 26-Jun-84 00:33:55 EDT Article-I.D.: druxm.869 Posted: Tue Jun 26 00:33:55 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 13-Jun-84 06:46:21 EDT References: <798@pyuxa.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Denver Lines: 26 I don't understand why anyone is looking for a rational reason for smoking. I can't imagine that there is one. The reasons for smoking are all irrational (and, as such, much harder to combat). If any smoker thinks he has a rational reason for smoking, I must consider him insane. The trouble is that smoking (like other habits and addictions) is begun because of peer pressure or some other equally powerfull emotional reason, and is continued because of emotional reasons or physical reactions. As a nonsmoker, I have two reactions to smoking: when I think only of myself, I am grossed out by smokers, and wish for all kinds of rules and laws to isolate me from the smoke (I'm especially grossed out by people who smoke in restaurants); when I think of the smoker, I wish I knew a way to motivate him to stop doing something that hurts himself more than it hurts me. As I understand it, there is no way to kick the smoking habit through logical reasoning. The only way to do it is to find an emotional impetus against smoking that is stronger than the emotional impetus to continue. Although I'm no expert, I understand that a common emotional argument against smoking is visualizing what it might be doing to a person you love (like the woman who quit smoking because she became disgusted by the fact that she only saw her grandson through a haze of smoke, and thought about what that smoke must be doing to him). Tom Laidig AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Denver ...!ihnp4!druxm!toml