Wherein I Discuss My Relationship With Cigarettes

I bought a pack of cigarettes today (for those that must know, I bought them to sell; there's quite the amount of money to be gained from selling cigarettes to desperate college kids who are too lazy to go to the store themselves. One pack of cigarettes is about 20 cigs at around 5 bucks a pack depending on brand; sell those at two bucks a piece, you're making a 35 dollar profit. And people will pay it, because people are lazy) and on the front is a notice about how the tobacco contained in these cigarettes "mostly" comes from family-owned and operated tobacco farms. Camel filters, Turkish blend. You think the starving family tobacco farmers in Turkey care about how their crop is being used?

Before you go off on me, keep in mind I'm utilizing this as an extreme way to illustrate a point. People have been farming tobacco across the pond since before we were a twinkle in the New World's eye. I have little doubt that for millenia the various hashish smoking cultures have been cutting their grass with tobacco (or a very similar herb) in order to make it more 'friendly'; I know the old adage that if you don't cough, you don't get off, but c'mon; who actually likes hacking up a lung in an attempt to get high, other than dumb preteens in middle school who think being high is the single most awesome attempt you can make at being an adult? (Kids: Don't do drugs irresponsibly. I'm a Doctor, and I approve this message.) So what's the upshot? Guilt.

Guilt is a powerful motivator in American society, especially since that whole Recycling boom in the 80's and 90's, which is yet another bullshit thing but I may touch on that later. Nowadays you can't spit without hitting a product that has been partially recycled to save the planet, or grown in a free-range chemical (or "enhancement")-free environment in an attempt to ensure the least possible amount of suffering. So now we have this whole subculture that is convinced that helping free-trade is THE way to exist.

Now, I have no problem with free-trade. It helps the global economy in a general sense and, more importantly, it makes people feel special. (Dear reader: please keep in mind I really have no issue with helping the global economy, but there are multiple ways to accomplish this goal, none of which are inherently bad with the exception of the reinstatement of slavery. YOUR VOTE COUNTS.) But there's this push, especially in the US, about buying all-organic or torture-free or something that would benefit the non-commercial. Now, keep in mind I found this on a package of cigarettes, an item known to kill, perhaps the single most damaging legalized product in the nation (with the exception of semi-automatic ammunition). A little friendly sticker on the front with an image of two hands clasping each other, letting me know about the poor Turkish farmers I was benefacting by buying this particular pack of cigarettes.

I swear to fuck this is some sort of guilt-trip for the rich, for people who don't have real problems. Because now they KNOW Camel is the brand that supports the global tobacco market, they have to buy Camels to show they care, care in supporting farmers while killing their own kin. It underlines a deeper problem, that of supreme dissatisfaction, of not being a real human unless you take these asinine measures to show you care... which beggars the question, how much can a smoker really CARE about starving families in Turkey who supply their habit?

Something to ponder.