News & Comment
Hockney hits back at "haters of tobacco"
Saturday 28th January 2012, posted by forest
Artist David Hockney, a member of Forest's Supporters Council, has criticised a leading anti-smoking activist who wants tobacco sold in plain packaging.
Writing to the Guardian in response to an interview with Simon Chapman, a professor of public health at the University of Sydney, Hockney asked:
Why doesn't Mr Chapman debate with a good and satisfied customer of the tobacco companies (Plain packs will make smoking history, 25 January)? Someone who has seen what will replace it as a smoothing, calming contemplative helper. Someone whose friends died of alcohol consumption, not tobacco. Someone who has smoked for nearly as long as he has lived. Someone who knows about the fanatical attitude of haters of tobacco. Someone who is not so naive about advertising and packaging.
Someone who has almost outlived a fanatical anti-smoking father. Someone who is fed up to the teeth with people who think they really know what health is. Someone who is not afraid of the cowardly, crooked politicians who stifle the debate about pleasure in the now. Someone who knows that time is elastic. Someone who knows how easy it is to lie with statistics. Someone who is not a professional agitator, who knows there is no such thing as a professional smoker but knows there are hundreds of dreary, professional, highly paid anti-smokers.
Someone who thinks laughter is good for you as it drains fear from the body. Someone who has something better to do than to try and control the quiet lives of others. Someone who knows we are all a bit different and is fed up with the growing regimentation of people. Someone who knows that smokers can live perfectly average-length lives but heavy drinkers rarely. Someone who is shocked by the growing conformity among people, and what that might mean for a reasonable free society. Someone who prefers the centre of Bohemia to Australian suburbia. Someone who knows we have to die.
Source: Guardian (28 January 2012)
Comments:
Posted on Jan 30th, 2012
Thank you, Guardian, for printing it and thanks to Forest for putting it here.
Posted on Feb 3rd, 2012
I want the freedom to choose to die a slow and painful death of lung cancer caused by smoking.
How sane does this sound?
Posted on Feb 7th, 2012
Obviously smoking causes cancer, but then so does drinking and many other social pursuits. If I want to enjoy smoking, then it is my choice- I'm not even saying it shouldn't be taxed to cover the cost of the NHS, but at the end of the day it is an issue of self-determination. I smoke now as a student, I don't expect that I will always smoke, and to say that everyone who smokes at some point will die a long and painful death is a bit of an exaggeration. Just because I go out for a quiet drink does not entail a slow and painful death from liver cancer. I only have one pair of lungs, I might as well use them before I die.
It may be for the state to tell me to pay more to cover the NHS costs, but it isn't for the state to tell me what I can and cannot spend my money on.
Posted on Mar 16th, 2012
One last thing, I love the way the anti smoking lobby are portrayed as sheep on a web site paid for by the tobacco industry. If you want to see sheep in action have a look at the pathetic souls crowded around office doorways in the rain paying for the right to ruin their health. Baaaaa
