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Jewish World Review Nov. 19, 2002 / 14 Kislev, 5763

Dennis Prager

Dennis Prager
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Consumer Reports


James Bond meets his most fanatical foe yet -- anti-smokers


http://www.jewishworldreview.com | The latest James Bond movie, "Die Another Day," follows the pattern of previous Bond films with scenes of glamorized violence including murder and mayhem, and titillating nudity with suggestive sex scenes. These, of course, garner no protest (nor am I advocating any such protest).

But it is surely an illustration of the moral confusion of our times that while scenes of gratuitous violence and sex, whose only purpose is to titillate the viewer, not to mention scenes of alcohol drinking, arouse no controversy, one scene is seething with controversy: Pierce Brosnan as James Bond smokes a cigar!

According to news reports about the Havana-based film, "In one scene, Bond extols the virtues of a cigar with a Cuban gangster." Anti-smoking groups around the world have reacted with a fury that no other imaginable scene would elicit. Movies that "extol the virtues" of underage sex, drug use, extra-marital sex or criminal behavior from bank robbing to murder elicit far less condemnation than a movie that depicts cigar smoking. We truly live in the Age of Stupidity.

Nothing more clearly represents our present moral and intellectual confusion -- which results in large part from the secularizing of society -- as does the hysteria surrounding smoking. For the zealots who devote their lives to the anti-smoking crusade, it is never enough to simply inform people that cigarette smoking is dangerous and takes years off the lives of up to one out of three smokers.

But why not? Why isn't informing people of the risks of cigarette smoking enough? Why all the laws against smoking? Why all the lawsuits on behalf of people who voluntarily chose to smoke for 40 years? Why the vitriol against cigars and pipes, neither of which is nearly as dangerous as cigarette smoking (cigar and pipe smokers do not inhale)? Why are photos of FDR doctored to remove his ubiquitous cigarette? Why do so many people have a quasi-religious mission to end smoking? Why is Britain set to outlaw cigarette smoking in films, but not torture, rape, murder or alcohol drinking?

Because health is a god in secular society, and, therefore, anti-smoking has become a religion -- and a major source of income -- for many people. Just as it was mostly religious zealots who fought to prohibit alcohol in the 1920s, mostly secular zealots fight against tobacco in our time. But there is a major difference between alcohol and tobacco. Whereas tobacco addiction only hurts the smoker (with the rare exception of some people exposed to smoke in an enclosed room all day for many years), alcohol addiction hurts all those in the lives of the alcoholic.

Would you rather be raised by a parent addicted to cigarettes or addicted to alcohol? The answer is so obvious that only an individual or a society suffering from severe moral confusion could find this question anything but rhetorical. Most of us were raised by at least one parent who was hooked on tobacco. None of us suffered anything but inconvenience (or on rare occasions the exacerbation of an asthmatic condition). But virtually any person raised by an alcoholic parent has a lifetime of emotional and psychological problems.

Would you rather your pilot smoked a cigarette/cigar/pipe before or during a flight or drank an alcoholic beverage before or during a flight?

Millions of innocent people have been beaten or murdered, and millions of girls and women have been sexually abused or raped because someone was under the influence of alcohol. Has anyone ever been beaten, murdered or abused because someone was under the influence of a cigarette, cigar or pipe?

At least the religious zealots who fought against alcohol were animated by moral concerns. The secular anti-tobacco zealots are animated by health concerns (and a loathing of big business).

These zealots who condemn cigar smoking in a movie are worthy of contempt, while Pierce Brosnan and the makers of "Die Another Day" are worthy of praise for defying the zealots. Had a cigar-smoking James Bond been successfully censored, a cigar-smoking Winston Churchill would surely be next.

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JWR contributor Dennis Prager hosts a national daily radio show based in Los Angeles. He is a director of Empower America and the author of "Happiness is a Serious Problem". Click here to visit his website and here to comment on this column.

Up


11/12/02: Conservatives need to be more compassionate on divorce
11/05/02: Of course, the great majority of Muslims are peaceful -- so what?
10/29/02: Nice guys finish first: Thoughts on the World Series
10/24/02: A Jew defends evangelical Christians
10/16/02: Bigot laureate well represents New Jersey
10/11/02: Why the Creator must always be higher than the Angels
10/02/02: Loudmouth "stars" are remaining surprisingly quiet about Israel
09/25/02: Bob Greene is a good man
09/11/02: 9-11 made America better
09/04/02: What I learned at the Minneapolis Metrodome about liberals and homosexuality
08/28/02: Teach our college co-eds about Islam --- but teach them the truth
08/22/02: LET THEM EAT PEANUTS!
08/14/02: How the nuclear family became "controversial"
08/07/02: Every generation is tested by great evil
07/31/02: Those who curse the Jews and those who bless them . . .
07/24/02: Children should talk to strangers
07/17/02: Why my son's best friend is black
07/11/02: Why Hesham Hadayet may be scarier than al Qaeda
07/03/02: "Pro-Israel lobby" is not why America supports Israel
06/26/02: Why does the Left support the "Palestinians"?
06/19/02: The commencement address I would give
06/12/02: Why do adult children live with their parents? Because they actually like them
06/05/02: The stripper and the Christian school: Thoughts on what a Christian school should do when a parent is a stripper and on who the biggest sinner here is
05/31/02: Don't worry, New York, you are safe from a terrorist threat
05/15/02: A proud member of the world's two most hated peoples
05/10/02: What Israelis are saying
05/06/02: Thank Heaven for moral violence
04/29/02: Give back the Nobel Peace Prize: A letter to Elie Wiesel
04/22/02: Why so many students cheat
04/12/02: Is it 1938 again for the Jews?
04/05/02: It's the values, stupid
01/31/02: Smoke and lose your son
10/30/01: Why Arab/Muslim anti-Semites are worse than the Nazis

© 2002, Creators Syndicate