To be clear, there is a clear public health imperative to decrease or at least discourage mass inhalation of tobacco smoke. Regularly inhaling tobacco smoke could very well kill you. Yet despite this, I would like to venture a modest, if only slightly ironic, defense of tobacco use. I think a reasonable vindication can be made on three grounds. First, the long march against smoking stigmatises yet another social and communal ritual, something we are desperately short on in today’s society. Second, the occasional use of tobacco really isn’t that dangerous. Third, in our over-sanitised, bureaucratic age, smoking serves as a necessary form of revolt.
Sir Roger Scruton
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