The Illusion of Free Will: The Lonely Rocker

The Lonely Rocker

Call them what you want. Smokes, fags, cigs, ciggies, darts, tabs, dubs, durries, rollies, doobies, derms, squares, cancer sticks, coffin nails... they are what they are. There are more names for them in different slangs, depending on where you are. And because of that, incidentally, wherever you are, it is almost impossible not to find them.

Hate them or love them, no matter what your opinions on them might be, they are indeed a force to be reckoned with. Buildings are cemented. Roads get tarred. Vegetables are grown, fishes are caught and then sold in markets. Stuff get made. Businesses run. People get paid. Humanity survives. The earth moves. Even now as you're reading this, the world is basically running on them. Like fuel. It's probably a bit idealistic to say that perhaps our planet can't even keep going without them. And yet, among other things, they are also the cause of its suffering. Haha.. reality and fate it seems, is not without a sense of irony.

Yesterday I got the chance to read a bunch of articles, all centering on how academics in various countries found traces of pig blood in cigarettes which acts as a filter for those dangerous chemical substances you've heard about before. Now my Muslim brethren, don't be alarmed because they haven't confirmed this yet, but if you're already pinching your face vigorously to wake up from this nightmare, I don't blame you. People say ignorance is bliss. But in a slight contradiction, we all know that knowledge is power. Stuck right there in the middle of those two very different things is something disturbing that we all like to call uncertainty. It's a major pain in the ass. ^_^ "Do you or don't you?"

Now I'm not an evangelist of either sides. But I do have my opinions. A majority of my closest friends are smokers. Once or twice, they've asked me the lingering questions. "Why don't you smoke?" "Are you scared of death?" "Are you gonna live forever?" "Ko ingat ko baik sangat ke?" Haha.. some of them, I'm afraid, still can't see the simple truth. That I just don't like them. Still, I don't see any reason to pester those close to me about it. My arwah Abah was a heavy smoker. But I still respected him and I've never thrown any crap at him for it. I've endured years of my school uniform smelling like shit, for crying out loud. But I'm still here with my sanity intact. When you can't beat them, you don't have to join them. Just be strong and do your thing.

Imagine you're a rocker stuck in a job at a factory where the majority of the workers are fanatic fans of dangdut. Haha.. now I have nothing against dangdut by the way. Even M. Nasir, my favorite musician made some of those in his earlier years. Anyway, back to my point. So you're a rocker, stuck in a job at a factory with dangdut lovers. Your supervisor loves it. Friends you go to lunch with love it. People you pass by on your way to the loo love it. Even the guy that pays you to do your job sings along every day as he turns up the volume for the whole floor to indulge in. Every single day. You're stuck. Now you can either choose to live your life in agony, or be a man and just do your thing. You can't hate people for loving what they love. If there's nothing you can do (or are willing to do), then endure. It's a no-brainer.

It's bullshit to say that your hygiene hangs in the balance when you smoke. Some people go to great lengths to smoke and still be clean. Hand sanitizers anyone? But you have to agree, the amount of effort you will have to make to stay clean and smoke cigarettes at the same time will be huge. And redundant.

I could care less if someday the whole world becomes a large network of societies consisting of cigarette smokers. Maybe someday I might even need to wear a gas mask every time I go out. I'm willing to accept that. I mean I have to survive.

I'm not trying to preach or anything. The sole purpose of my writing this today is to just put it out there. Let the knowledge spread. Help kill uncertainty. When you get enough attention, people will line up to do research and confirm the findings. And when things add up and all you see are facts, then you can choose.

posted by Samael at 11:00 AM |