Cigarettes and Our Local Thugs
Cigarettes and Diet Coke are not the only easy-to-reach alienating self-and-other substitute. So is hate. So delicious!
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“During the Covid pandemic, formative experiences took place at a remove; today even more of life happens online. An epidemic of loneliness and a rise in mental health problems has crested in tandem with the increase in time spent on mediated platforms.
It’s not hard to imagine, then, that smoking might serve as an antidote — or at the very least, a refutation of an existence lived at a remove from the real.
Cigarettes are unavoidably analog; smoking is an embodied task. The handling of a cellophane-wrapped pack, the flick of a lighter — or better yet, the strike of a match — the deliberate draw and release of breath and the heady nicotine buzz all engage the senses in a way that can’t be replicated on a screen. Many smokers describe the ritual of lighting up, the tangibleness of the particular task. And unlike a bulbous, plasticy vape, they seem real; not just another thing to plug in.”
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