Any crusade will do
Wednesday, June 4, 2008 Rob Lyons, deputy editor of the excellent online magazine Spiked, has this to say about the latest anti-smoking campaign:
"Even after their ban on smoking in public places, [anti-smoking campaigners] continue to come up with new ways to restrict smoking or access to cigarettes, and are always looking for other ‘vulnerable’ groups of ‘addicts’ to meddle with. Well, when you’re an unpopular government in desperate need of a purpose, any crusade will do."
He adds:
"What the proposals are really all about is the long-standing anti-smoking campaign technique of denormalisation. This is an insidious attempt at social conformism. If people who engage in some habit are marked out as different, as deviant, then others will reject them. If you have to ask for a packet of fags in much the same manner that dodgy men in macs have to ask for porn, you’re less likely to want to do it."
Full article HERE. Well worth reading.
Reader Comments (3)
Politicians should get their priorities right. It is policy to 'Denormalise' smokers, increase the legal age of buying cigarettes to eighteen and prosecute anyone of any age having a puff with their pint. However, it is also policy not to prosecute under 18s for carrying knives! The Tories are concerned about criminalising under 18s if the police prosecute those caught carrying a weapon, but throw the book at them if they have 10 Benson & Hedges in their pocket.
What sort of messages are being sent out? Are cigarettes really more dangerous than a 6 inch steel blade? Are smokers really the Anti Christs whereas teenage hooded gangsters are only misunderstood and will all become pillars of society?
If the government wants to 'Denormalise' anything it should start with serious crime and it then may become less normal to carry weapons, mug, rape and murder.
What I find even more ridiculous is the very idea that having to ask for your cigarettes without seeing them is going to make you feel like you're asking for porn.
If that really is something that ASH and HMG believe, then they don't understand human psychology at all.
A truly odd comparison in my view.
Well said Michael!