Text-Number: 0050E

Available: 06/10/1996
Category: Politics
Number of characters: 2268
Translation title: Hot Air 
Translator: Kimberly Rose
Translation Copyright: Kimberly Rose
Author: Lutz Meiser
Written: 06/10/1996
Abbreviation (when applicable): Mei
Title:Hi(gh) Qualm
Pending publication by/on: 
Previous publication by/on:
Copyright: Lutz Meiser
Discussion/Letters to the Editor:

Lutz Meiser

(translation by Kimberly Rose)

Hot Air

R.J. Reynolds can't seem to understand why militant non-smokers in the U.S. are taking a stand against their newest cigarette, Hi Q. Is it militance as a matter of principle?
Those who can't grasp that a cigarette like Hi Q meets with moral objection understand the incessantly swelling attack against smoking even less than they understand the pleasure of smoking. How can anyone even think that the development of Hi Q could revolutionize the cigarette market? As if a stalk enhanced with nicotine and an carbon-insulating mass — which produces nothing but hot air — could really replace an object like the cigarette. Neither smokers nor their enemies have fallen for this one. 
Reynolds has ill-advised consultants. Hasn't anyone told this mega-corporation that the group of smokers who do so out of nervous habit is rapidly dwindling compared with those who smoke for the oral stimulation of other erogenous zones. 
The new cigarette has to be a flop.
And if the Reynolds press secretary complains about militant non-smokers, she obviously doesn't understand them either. The whole world is bewildered by the moral objections directed toward smokers. Someone grabs a cigarette in a street cafe, where the exhaust fumes waft between the tables, and he's harassed. What exactly is the militant non-smokers prerogative? This is the million-dollar question. 
But, as with every million-dollar question, there is a hint: Could it be that militant non-smokers simply can't handle looking on while someone else indulges in their joy? For some, the hardest thing is to grant others their simple pleasures. Maybe all this sheds a different light on the puritanical tendencies that are shaping the U.S. today. 
In the U.S., the smokers who practice their perversion (and smoking is one now) fit into the typical street scene as poorly as the flasher or streaker. 
What's going to happen to all those voyeurs who are waiting to catch someone in the act of perversion? If things continue as they are, they'll soon be out of luck. They'll have to find a new victim. How about all those unscrupulous people who sit in cafes and indulge in watching passersby.