many people take up heroin, cocaine, booze, wife beating and child abusing, for some of those same reasons...
"Nowhere these days does one hear voices lifted to praise cigarettes, as one often does in wartime, for their multiple psychological and social benefits, for their cultural value, or for their aesthetic power."
actually, the second world war gave a very large boost to the addiction, as servicemen were given 'free" cigarettes, and came home hooked...prior to that war, smoking was a much more middle class activity, but it really came to the masses when vets brought the habit, and their cigarettes, home....
I can even remember that women in my family took up smoking when I was a kid, after the war and the return of all my elders, mainly through being exposed to it all the time...and even then, getting into arguments about the stink, and sanitary problems, but also speaking of its additive quality...
none of the public bans on smoking deprive anyone of anything but a form of middle class, tobacco company propaganda induced i-want-what-i-want-whenever-i-want-it satisfaction...we are still able to smoke our brains out, in private, which is where we do other stuff that isn't allowed in public, without any whining or moralizing ...
having experienced smoking tobacco, and having sex, I quit the first and much prefer the second, but feel no oppression because it isn't allowed in public places, like restaurants or bars...does that make me a republican?
fs