It is sad that we all consider
cigarettes and alcohol as the only evil. An individual smoking a cigarette of
drinking alcohol is considered to be having a bad habit or an addict. There is
a whole laundry list of wrong things we humans do but none get the kind of
blame as cigarettes & alcohol. I do not smoke and I drink occasionally but
I abhor the kind of condescending attitude towards smokers or drinkers. We all
do corruption in some way or the other. We all find ways to avoid taxes. We all
(Men, in this case) are to be blamed for the crimes against women. We all exploit
individuals working under us (agree it or not) through less pay or inhuman
working conditions (read, workers cleaning the sewers or coal mines or maid at
homes among others) yet take the moral higher ground when it comes to ethics. We
all watch pornographic videos. Has banning porn reduced divorces or infidelity?
Guns kill more people in the world than smoking and alcohol combined. The crux
of the matter is that we pick and choose what is right and wrong for us.
The problem lies in our attitude
to look at external beauty and get impressed, to look at materialistic objects
and feel proud. We never look beyond what is visible to the physical eye. Since
time immemorial, cigarettes and alcohol have faced a larger tax because it is a
luxury and the government wants to reduce its consumption. Yet the consumption doesn’t
reduce because for every person dying or giving up the habit, there is a
college going student introduced to it as the solution to all ills. There were
written warnings on cigarette packets. Subsequently they introduced gory
photos. Why is there not a warning on liquor bottles? Why are there no photos
on liquor bottles. Man is designed to find out ways to do things when told not
to do so. We all know that corruption is wrong. But it still exists. The only
way we can reduce consumption is by educating the people about the perils of
both these things and then let them decide their course of action. Force will
not work and never will.
The government needs to find ways
to educate the children, right in school. Education is the only way consumption
will decrease. Who is the government or tell a person what is right and what is
wrong about a personal consumption. It is entirely his or her prerogative. If it
doesn’t affect other individuals, then it shouldn’t matter. Every individual is
intelligent enough for his or her volition. A teetotaller isn’t a morally
better individual and neither is a smoker/drinker a morally degraded one. Move beyond
the obvious. Try to find the underlying which affects human decisions and then
work on that underlying. Until then, we will have more bans which will not
work.
