A few nights ago I went to see ‘Thank You For Smoking‘ a movie about a lobbyist for the tobacco industry. A comedy by design, but opened up the audience to issues of governments role in society and the responsibility of individuals. The lobbyist believes that he is simply assisting an industry that has gotten too much bad press in the last few years, and that people have overreacted to the harms of tobacco. But, more importantly he feels that it is each persons responsibility to take what is shown to them, analyze it, and to come up with what is best for them. This movie is funny, very entertaining, and potentially educational, a good combination, and only for $7.
To me it’s unfortunate how far the anti-smoking people have taken their opinions. In many municipalities, cities, and some states there are bans on smoking in public buildings, public spaces (even municipal golf course in CA), and restaurants and bars. My opinion is that if someone does not want to go to a bar where people smoke they should not go. And if a business owner wants to have a bar that allows smoking they should have the right to have such a bar. In a case where other peoples’ rights are not being infringed, it is not the role nor the responsibility of the government to tell people nor business owners what they should be doing. Allowing smoking in bars does not infringe on others rights, because people freely decide to enter that bar. Obviously, the case is different in public buildings.
Yes, tell me not to take away someone’s right to life, or someone’s right to their property. But, to tell me that I can not go to a bar with smoking adds no value to the world. It reduces the freedoms that we have as individuals, as humans who have the innate ability to decide what is best for ourselves. Making decisions like these for people makes them lazy members of society. They become disempowered, not acknowledging their ability to asses what is best for them. They become comfortable with the government deciding what is right for them, they don’t assess the situation and decide for themselves, they simply allow a decision to be made for them.
One question I leave the reader, if you do support smoking bans and other limitations on rights, how does the government know better than I know myself, what is best for me?
