We've had a lot of talk about the evils of habitually smoking tobacco,
and the immorality of the people who push, excuse me, sell it. Rather
than get our shorts in a knot over this, why don't we just think of it
as evolution in action ? The medical facts are widely known, and only
highly paid lawyers even try to dispute them.
The Noosphere has always had parasitic and destructive memes floating
about in it. I see no likelihood that we will ever be free of dangerous
ideas. Rather than go about shooting people, why don't we let those who
succumb to this meme die of it, as nature intended?
I myself am a reformed smoker, I stopped mostly because I was afraid
that I might live long enough to regret it. No, it was not easy.
There are a lot of other people like me out there, they have facts and
choices available to them. If they choose death by smoking that is
perhaps no one elses business. Let's knock off this stuff about
shooting people whom we judge harmful to society, and get back to
talking about memes.
Besides, theses meme thingies seem to mutate readily. What if we sent
it out as “Shoot the Evil Tobacco Lords” and it came back as “Shoot the
Evil Memetics Masters”?
Cordially,
Ken McE
-- The only problem is that after you're done there's no way to unteach a dog how to use a hammock.