TIME was when, not so long ago, smoking was considered among the great pleasures of life. In fact, smoking was associated with greatness, or at least some of the great men had smoking associated with them.
Winston Churchill, for example, was always with his ubiquitous pipe wherever he went. As with his alcohol, smoking was for him one of the indispensable luxuries he could not do without. To this vice (though he probably would not label it as such), he is famously said to have remarked: “My rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after and if need be, during all meals and in the intervals between them.”
Another great leader, one who was near and dear to Filipinos – and also a poster boy for smoking – was the great general Douglas MacArthur. Always depicted with his corn-cob pipe wherever he was to be seen, the good general was much associated with the pipe, as the pipe was identified with him. The outsize smoking contraption was his alter-ego.
Those days, though, of great men and their smokes, seem to have been swept into the back-pages of our history books.
Many years hence, as our great grandchildren look upon statues or photographs of these great leaders, they would probably be wondering about those strange contraptions hanging from their mouths, and once they found out, would no doubt wonder endlessly how such seemingly intelligent men would allow themselves to be slowly poisoned by their own personal habits.
That report, of course, from more than 50 years ago, changed the perception of smoking from that day forth.
“The 1964 report ‘Smoking and Health, Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service’ had a profound impact that led to interventions that likely saved more lives than any other public-health effort in the second half of the last century, and the anti-tobacco fight continues unabated to this day.” (From “Surgeon General’s Report 50 Years Ago Turned the Tide Against Smoking,” Steve Jacob, D CEO Healthcare, Jan. 9, 2014)
In summary, what the report said was that “cigarette smoking is the primary cause of lung and laryngeal cancer in men and chronic bronchitis in both sexes, and associated the behavior with coronary heart disease and emphysema.”
Shortly thereafter, cigarette packs started to carry dire warnings about the consequences of smoking (in a number of countries), culminating in the posting of graphic illustrations of diseased body organs as a warning to those who still refuse to give up the habit.
In recent times, great leaders have become less associated with what they smoked, and more with what they ate.
Bill Clinton, for example, when he was president, was often reported as escaping from the White House late at night, and sneaking into a McDonald’s for the guilty pleasures of a Big Mac Meal. And now, Donald Trump – he with the unmistakable kilos of extra weight that he carries around – is another poster boy for the pleasures of excessive gastronomic indulgence.
And guess what happened to them? Well, to at least one of them, we all know he underwent multiple bypass surgery to correct years of abuse from having one too many cheeseburgers.
As for Trump, well nothing yet, but who knows what the future yet holds for the famously heavy-set president (who likes to think of himself as lean and athletic, regardless).
We now know the dangers of bad food, just as 50 years ago we understood the perils of smoking. But we are still waiting for its own Surgeon General’s report – one which like half a century ago, warned us all that though many great men smoked, smoking also does great damage to men.
(On Twittter: @asbbatuhan)