On Smoking...

Every age seems to have its own unique set of symbols to denote power, influence and style. From the early twenties up until around the early sixties, it was smoking cigarettes. If you watch Humphrey Bogart movies, you see that syndrome is full force. A cigarette was an integral part of Bogart’s onscreen persona. Virtually every move he made involved a cigarette. It was as if Bogart was not completely dressed unless he had a cigarette in his hand.  He was a living advertisement for cigarettes. I remember, in the late fifties, seeing Arnold Palmer playing golf and before he hit his shot, he threw his cigarette into the grass. Immediately the tv camera zeroed in on the brand, then a big logo for the cigarette company flashed on the screen. You got the impression that it was fashionable to smoke.  I’ve often wondered why cigarettes were such a power symbol during that particular era. I venture to say that smoking was a personalized, symbolic carryover for the major industries of the day. During that period, the industrial revolution was in full swing in America. The most powerful companies--the symbols of power and influence--were steel mills and automobile manufacturers, chemical plants, power plants and other such smoke-producing entities. Smoke was a symbol of power and influence. If you smoked, you were somehow personalizing that power and influence. Nowadays, financial advisers refer to such companies as the “smokestack” industries. Today, the symbols which denote power, influence and personal style are electronic gadgets.  But in a world where the most powerful companies are software, hardware, web publishing, computer networking, electronics manufacturers and other information-related firms, what else would you expect? Ipods, cell phones, hand-held computers, laptops… these seem to be the cigarettes of the early 21st century.