Put your trust in strangers. They’ve never met you. They know nothing about you. But they know what’s best for you right? If only you were as smart as them, you’d live a longer, happier, and more fulfilling life. Except if you got cleaved in half in a monstrous car wreck on the way to work one July morning, but I guess that’s beside the point.
You don’t really feel what you’re doing is wrong, you’re just living your life. Or maybe you do feel that what you’re doing is wrong, and you do it anyways. Why? For a whole bunch of reasons. Maybe you want it. Maybe you need it. Maybe you just don’t give a shit. Either way you’re an adult who can make his or her own decisions right? Well, no. Why? Because there are other adults who have decided it is their mission in life to think for you. What’s that? [pause] Oh, you’re not prepared to obey? Well fuck you.
Today the Los Angeles City Council, which is apparently too busy to tackle important issues in their city (such as why they still don’t have an NFL team) decided they needed to vote new laws that treat e-cigarettes like regular cigarettes.
The vote was 14-0. Yes friends, 14 to zero. You probably couldn’t get these 14 meatbags to agree on the time of day, but they’ll vote unanimous when it comes to controlling your behavior.
I’m trying really, really hard to wrap my brain around this one without resorting to intellectual violence. So I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt that they all voted along these lines for two reasons:
a) They genuinely believe their vote will keep people healthy
b) They banned e-cigarettes because they have the word cigarette in their name
Wait no, that isn’t the case at all. They voted along these lines because they:
c) Want to control how you think, especially if that helps them accomplish bullet (a) and they could not care less of the consequences of their actions
The most transparent statement came from Council President Wesson. Herb smoked for decades and then stopped because he’d determined his habit, “would almost certainly kill him one day”. So Herb made a choice, on his own (and/or with some help), to quit smoking. But what he’s saying with his vote is that the average smoker is not intelligent enough to make the same judgment on his or her own. Herb decided he must vote a law that makes that choice for other people. Now I bet Herb is truly trying to do the right thing, but he’s wrong.
Are e-cigarettes as healthy as pure spring water? Why no, far from it. Are they better for your body than regular cigarettes? Of course. A step down is a step down. But to me, this is really about more than that. What the Los Angeles City Council is saying is the same thing that hundreds of other government and private bodies have said over the past hundred or so years:
“You’re too stupid to know better. So we’ll tell you what to think by making it illegal.”
Thus we get the laws and society we live in today. In this idiot’s opinion, it isn’t worth it. I would legalize it all, everything. Want to drink bleach? Go right ahead. Want to smoke? Let me get you a light. Want to sniff cocaine? Let me get you a clean razor blade.
Now this is extreme. Would I really do this? No. I’d probably say something like, “Hey [insert name here], let’s talk this out.” Those of you out there who are enforcers would say that’s the point of these laws. The Council voted that way to take these situations out of the equation. Your humble blog author won’t have to talk people out of it because it’ll all be illegal. Oh, I see, so how’s that working out for us with say, cocaine, or weed?
1) When the government and/or a corporation are in the business of telling you what you can or cannot put in your body, there is no limit to how far they can go.
2) If we’re at the point where people feel they must order you on what you can do with your own body, freedom doesn’t exist.
I know what I’m saying. I understand the danger of what I’m advocating. I’ve known people (some very close friends & family) addicted to cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, Arcturus meth dust, and so on. But if you’re an adult (nothing I’m saying applies to kids) you’re self-aware enough to make these decisions for yourself. And if or you die in a back row townhome via a crack overdose or you die of lung cancer when you’re 45? Oh well. You made the call. Live with it or not.
The government and/or a corporation could probably help you get kick the addiction, if you’re willing. Think of all the good people could do with all the mental energy and physical resources society spends on prevention and incarceration if we spent it instead on treatment? The American DEA spends $3 billion a year to fail at its mission, let’s start with them.
Legalize it all. Take the control of your life out of the hands of strangers. You’re intelligent enough. Either way, it’s your right to decide for yourself.
Please trust me to tell you what’s best. Honestly, I know better. You can trust this face.
The Arcturus Project 