Smoke or not to smoke?

If you ask around, you follow society. If you don't, you follow yourself.

Asking around for advice is a silly act. If one has decided to do something, take immediate action and strive to complete it. And that is it. The thinking aspect that intrudes in between will always serve as a killjoy and restrict freedom. And the more one does this, the more constrained lives they will live. Now, this is a dangerous mindset from the outset. Am I saying one should act on one's impulses? Kind of. But! I am also saying that once you have decided on your impulse, you must follow through. And if done this way, I am firmly in favor of completely removing the thinking aspect and just acting. And push through until it is finished. This builds willpower and faith in oneself. And generally, no one follows this.

We all want an arbiter, a second person who says, "Yes, you should be fine if you do this." Or that person who says, "No, you shouldn’t." And that does two things: It makes us doubt ourselves and, simultaneously, makes us feel safe. The feeling of safety is a pleasure for the mind, for we, through this process of talking about our ideas, can root out apparent misconceptions and even get clear guidance and encouragement from someone who might have experience doing this. I am not against this. However, I am against overdoing this to the point that we start acting solely based on the reciprocation of the 2nd person’s perspective. We overvalue safety or, to be honest, the illusion of safety. And because of this, we lose the inherent agency that is built in all of us and delude ourselves into a dreadful, drudgery-based lifestyle.

This happens simply because we have stopped practicing our immediate-action-oriented outlook, given that it might be unsafe and error-prone and puts us in uncertain situations, which might be risky and make us feel like a fool for a bit. But the greatest gift of doing this is we win our agency back!!

With this context, I will explain why I chose the title related to smoking. This weekend, a friend from grad school visited. I met him after three years, and we had great fun with him, as we have always enjoyed each other’s company. Ultimately, we decided to drop him at Newark Airport so he could catch his flight back to San Fransico. At the parting, it was decided that given we meet each other at such long intervals, a final smoke together would be an apt moment to relish. Neither he nor any of us smokes except for occasional whims and fancies. We agreed quickly, for he had to rush to catch his flight. Other acquaintances visiting from India who were with us at that time had an entire pack of cigarettes with them, and promptly, my grad school friend picked one, lighted it up, and took a drag, deeply enjoying the moment. At that moment, it occurred to me that it doesn’t seem plausible that smoking in front of the departure terminal in the US would be in any way legal. I asked my other friends about it, and everyone felt the uncanniness of the situation. I glanced wide and saw many cops around us doing their usual duties. No one, to be honest, was bothered by us. Meanwhile, my grad-school friend was enjoying his farewell and maybe his 2nd drag when suddenly one of our friends discovered a huge board saying “No Smoking” just behind the grad-school friend’s back, tucked on which he was enjoying his smoke.

Oh, what a surprise, for the moment he pointed out that smoking was not allowed, my grad-school friend’s face turned white; he threw his cigarette to the dustbin and said - “damn, that was foolish!!”. We laughed for the next five minutes and hugged each other, and he rushed in to catch his flight.

If we had not discovered the sign, we would have been blissfully ignorant of the second person, the arbiter, and my friend would have enjoyed the full smoke. Alright, I understand the weirdness of this example, as smoking at this point is publicly shamed. Still, I am trying to point out something deeply philosophical, and that is, it was remarkable that we at least didn’t see that colossal board at the start; otherwise, he wouldn’t even have expressed his desire to smoke at the last minute! He expressed his feeling of sharing a final smoke and acted and enjoyed a few drags out of his free will and agency. It has its risks and foolishness, but it is also deeply human and allows him to follow through with an idea, a seed idea, without being subjected to reason and judgment.

I daresay that only those few who can make their obsession their job are the ones who are truly living. They are acting on their valid free will, their true inner calling, while giving blind ignorance to an outsider’s perspective. And that is an act of courage, an act of boldness, an act of manliness, and an act to embrace the joy that this life has inherently in it.