When I was just a kid under 10 years of age, I remember watching a cigarette advertisement . The ads portrayed the smokers as heroes. Not only was the appearance of the smoker so fascinating, but the act of smoking itself was displayed in an alluring way making it seem like a glorious and prestigious style to follow.
Repeated exposure to heroic characters smoking cigarette instilled in me the desire to emulate their behaviour. It felt like putting the cigarette in between the lips and releasing the puffs of smoke in the air was a style that made anyone glamorous. I remember imitating the act of smoking with some sticks or pencils.
There was a milk shop in our area that offered a small gift on purchase of the milk. I once chose a keychain designed like a cigarette. When my father got to know this, he displayed a great disapproval. The reaction was quite unexpected, as my father was not someone who would keep on reprimanding on little silliness every now and then. However, his disapproval over that dummy cigarette was enough to let me understand how undesirable the act might be.
Well, the reproach could develop a sense of rebellion and brought a negative outcome in the future. However, it never happened. I never wanted to smoke again. The reason is that it was not a temporary rebuke but there was a constant teaching via actions that prohibited me from adopting the behaviour. It was the instilling of principles and values that developed my conscience against the act of smoking.
The truth is that the world is full of awful ideologies and behaviours that are displayed in a glorified manner. No matter how much we attempt to avoid the exposure, it is inevitable to happen. In fact, by being unaware of certain glorified harms we may, at times, look or behave dumb. Therefore, the idea of shielding against the exposure doesn’t seem to work in our favour.
Nevertheless, it doesn’t mean that we should do nothing to protect ourselves from the harmful effects of exposure to negative yet glorified actions or ideologies. The tools that may work as protective agents are critical thinking and instilling strong values. Especially, in today’s era where every one has the liberty to portray and spread their crap on the name of freedom of speech, ingraining robust principles and values has become crucially important to distinguish between right and wrong.
The film industry and media are continuously becoming freer to present aggression, sexism, violence, exploitation and several other harmful behaviours without restraint. Despite the increasing research on the negative effects of media violence on human behavior, putting a restriction on the display of any harmful ideologies has become nearly impossible, as media houses do it on the name of entertainment. Also, their claim to spread awareness, in some cases, can not be undermined.
Therefore the responsibility lies on the viewers to not only develop critical thinking among themselves to separate the reality from the glorification of crime, but also to ingrain robust moral values in their younger generation.
This post is in response to the HL-Community prompt of week 132 edition 3.
Image created by me using Bing AI.
I agree with you, as you well know, I think we need more critical thinking, people who really spend a few minutes thinking, being curious, doing a little research, it's not that you need to be an academic to be able to have a more or less vision. objective of the situations.
I was a smoker for 30 years, and then, when my body was deteriorating and after going through several health scares, I realized how disgusting it is to kiss or talk to someone who smells like cigarettes. Nowadays I see that in a different way, but I still understand the anxiety of those who smoke.
And the media only contributes with its bombardment of propaganda and wild marketing focused on sexuality, to people purchasing cigarettes, vehicles and almost anything.
Intelligence for me is selling a product to those who don't want to buy it.
Agreed. Academics does not necessarily give wisdom.It merely provides knowledge. Knowledge is impossible but alone is not enough for critical thinking and evaluation requires wisdom too. Sometimes,we come across the word of wisdom from those who haven't been to schools ever.
Interesting. Does it mean that when you quit smoking and stayed aaay from its smell then you realized that the smell was disgusting? Or you mean something else?
Sexuality is one of the most commonly used theme in marketing. Once we conducted a research on underlying messages of ads and woooh I realized the prevalence of sexualism was far higher than we think.
!LOLZ. And sometimes, people holding such intelligence are evil genius.
Thanks for your contribution @manclar
!LUV
Yes, as I still think, people have to be more independent, stop being those sheep that follow where the flock goes and start following their own path. maybe that will help improve your environment.
Not only the smell, but it was more the sensation of feeling in a pure environment, without pollution, it was a very big difference, before I saw everything with a cloud of smoke around and now I saw the entire environment without fog. Every time a smoker approached, I felt (and still feel) in the presence of contaminated air, of a toxic person, so I tried to stay away because I have already verified that smokers are usually linked to activities that I do not like, such as vices. , jobs in unpleasant places where there are more smokers, and things like that. So it is not in my interest to have that type of people in my social circle, I aim for philanthropists, musicians, artists and people who may smoke, but who contribute something to society, not a bar bouncer, that every day you beat drunks.
Yes, I admire them, and I study them, they are better than common geniuses :)
I get your point about smoking now. Thanks for making it clearer. When we are habitual of living in contamination it is not possible for us to understand how living without contamination feel. The difference can only be understood when we live a life witout it.
30 years is a long time. I am curious to know what was the thing that motivated you to not smoke. I know health was one of the issues as you alreay mentioned, but I think an addiction like smoking needs stonger motivation.
Well, in my case, seeing death directly in my eyes on 5 or 6 occasions, I think it was enough motivation...the last time was about 7 years ago (I had not smoked for approximately 10 years) and I suffered respiratory arrest as a collateral consequence. even after so many years without having tried a single cigarette. That day I was doing my normal activities, cooking at home. I suffered a spasm in my throat, the sensation was horrible, today when I tell you this I relive the emotion and the trauma...my larynx contracted and I couldn't breathe for 30 seconds, in the first 10 seconds I had the attack of anxiety, then I used my knowledge and spiritual techniques of a lifetime (I was a spiritual counselor for more than 30 years, but this is part of other stories of my life, yes I know...I am an interesting person, they tell me everything time...), I resorted to "combat breathing" (a technique that teaches you to hold the air for several seconds) and I focused on doing it, that allowed me to last about 30 seconds without air while the spasms in my throat ended and the inflammation went down.
Fortunately the inflammation subsided in a short time, the trachea opened again allowing air to pass through, and I was able to continue breathing...that is to say I was saved...this was the sequel years after the abuse of smoking and also other things (abuse of drugs for many years, today I am clean, I do not drink, smoke, or consume any type of medication or drug for more than 15 years)
And that's what happened to me.
They say it right. Your life experiences enriched with well contemplated expression make you an interesting person 🙂
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Your Dad played a crucial role you know? That's how parents should be intentional while trying to stop a habit from a child. Just like you mentioned, it's just inevitable to escape being exposed to all these but the responsibility lies in our hands to protect ourselves from the harmful glorified ideologies
!PIZZA
I am thankful to my father who did the right thing at the right time.
We certainly need strong foundations to keep us on ground and be not swayed away by the whims of induced emotions
Do you know that when your children watch this kind of movie, they will turn to become smokers?
I just wish that the film industry would seize to showcase these kinds of movies.
Hehe. It's a wish that doesn’t seem to fulfil. We need to prepare our own shield.
Thanks for the contribution
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