God Damn Hippies

So, to quote one of my favorite free thinkers, Eric Cartmen, "God damn hippies!". The citizens of Boston are all for the preservation of your rights as an American when it comes to the war on terror and illegal wiretaps amid all the other wonderful things the Bush administration has been called out on. And this is part of being a hippy that I'm fine with. What is absolutely unacceptable however, is that they have taken a page from Bush's book and are using public health concerns to push their restrictive agenda in much the same way as the executive branch has done with terrorism. Recently a law was passed that will make it illegal for cigarettes to be sold on college campuses and even more devastatingly that smoking will be illegal in all indoor work spaces come next Monday, Dec 22, 08. These may even sound reasonable. We all know the dangers of smoking and even problems of second hand smoke. However, the clause about "any indoor workspace" includes bars, restaurants, and nightclubs, around 700 establishments total will have to rethink their business plan.

This is an atrocity. America in my eyes is about freedom of the individual, to be able to do things that other people don't agree with so long as your actions aren't trampling on their rights. If someone chooses to never smoke out of concern for their health, or to avoid other people smoking, that is perfectly reasonable. Bars, restaurants, and nightclubs have never been required to let people smoke, it is a choice the owner/manager makes to attract certain clientel and people then have the choice to patronize these establishments based on the environment they are looking for. With the number of bars in this town finding a suitable choice, no matter what your preferences, should not have been a problem for anyone. I refuse to waste my own or your time pontificating about second hand smoke and why in a private establishment it isn't infringing anyone elses' right to make healthy decisions. Either you agree with me or you are too paternalistic to be reasoned with.

Taking that paternalism to a whole new level we have the wonderful world of college, where everyone, young and old, is a dependant of the system, subject to restrictions on freedom of speech, and a myriad of other depressing restrictions. It turns out all the paternalistic coddling that goes along with preventing underage drinking doesn't do shit, so why is changing where you buy your cigarettes going to change anything? Well, it wont. It will just make students who do smoke go out of their way and further inconvenience them. Should be also make students get std checks and submit paperwork everytime they want to fuck? Right now it is a witch-hunt for smokers, I have no idea where they will turn next.

In short, dirty hippies are getting their way and undermining exactly what America stands for. They overlook one very important fact of life and it only contributes to the problems we are going to have over the next few years. That fact is that people need to take personable responsibility for their actions and that their actions do in fact have repercussions concerning their reputation. Reputation and responsibility, two of the most important factors in being a useful human being. Dictating choices for people lets them abdicate their own responsibility over little things like this but sets a trend that is remarkably dangerous. On a similar note, people understand that reputation is important. Look at the international community and the way they view the States right now because of President Bush and his recent tactics. Traveling abroad has recently become much less fun. If someone understands the cost benefit analysis of smoking and their reputation and decides that relaxing with a smoke is worth whatever social ramifications come with it, I sure as hell hope that they are smart enough to make that choice for themselves. I choose to try and keep an optimistic outlook on life, that people are inherently awesome, creative, intelligent beings. Look at all that we have accomplished in the last 5, 10, 100, 1000 years. Those advancements were not made by having one hivemind making everyone's decisions for them, they came from thousands and millions of people all working as autonomous, responsible entities. To see what happens when you let paternalism run a society, look no further than the church; it was known as the dark ages. I, for one, sure as hell would rather live in a society defined by statues of David, theories of helio-centrism and Higgs-Hosons, whether I think they are worthwhile or not, than one defined by Malleus Maleficarum.