Second-Hand Smoke and Mirrors

By John Taylor
[email protected]

Special to The Libertarian Enterprise

         L.F. writes, in toto, from somehere in Maryland:

Your right to swing your fist ENDS where my nose begins. I am so glad that I can now eat out in Columbia and not have to put up with other people's smoke.

         I certainly welcome your input and opinion. I'm guessing you're responding to an article I wrote in October of 1996 ("Who's Blowing Smoke in Howard County?", The Libertarian Enterprise Issue #17).
         I certainly have an appreciation for the libertarian sentiments you express regarding aggression. In fact, I'm not a big fan of eating in a smoke-filled room myself. My solution has traditionally been to ask to be seated in the non-smoking section to begin with. Then, if the ventilation was so poor that the atmosphere was intolerable, I would no longer frequent that establishment, making sure to let the management know why.
         I would encourage you to let the property owner know, politely but in no uncertain terms, what you find objectionable about his product or service, regardless of what that might be. It is by such means that businesses "learn" appropriate behaviors. It makes a wonderful project for you and your friends. This is one case where numbers really matter. A significant volume of input to a business owner can work wonders. And, in the bargain, you get to feel the pride of having accomplished something by civil means. Sort of a "market solution", as it were.
         I was once a smoker myself. (In fact, I would smoke, sniff, dip, or chew any tobacco product known to man.) For a while right after I quit, the physical craving forced me to avoid smokers (and, by extension, Places where there were smokers).
         Later, I became an anti-smoking zealot -- there is, after all, nothing worse than a recently-reformed "sinner". During that period, I developed a distinct aversion to the smell of tobacco -- an aversion bordering on physical allergy. Once again, I avoided smokers and smoky places like the plague, because I literally couldn't stand to be around them.
         Now, after many years, I have neither craving nor aversion to smoke. On the other hand, My wife is, and has been all her life, physically sickened by proximity to smoke. So, to a certain extent, I may still avoid smoky places and smokers.
         But through all that, I can honestly say that it never occurred to me that it was anyone's problem other than my own. If I enter a room, and something about it is distasteful to me -- be it a pall of smoke, obnoxious music, or a crowd whose behavior is not to my liking -- I just leave. My first thought is not to make everyone stop doing things I don't like, or force them to leave.
         If I demand of every business owner that his standards meet mine, and that he force his clientele to adapt to those standards, then I've certainly aggressed against him, and, in many cases, against his clientele as well. What gives me the right to insist that every business be run the way I want it to be, and that every patron behave the way I want him to?
         And while we're sounding libertarian themes, as for the "fist/nose" aphorism, I couldn't agree more. Which is why I am adamantly opposed to Big Government swinging its enforcement "fist" against the "noses" of private property owners. In my article I wrote:

What on earth gives blue-noses and do-gooders the impression that they can run roughshod over the property rights of business owners in the name of some questionable "common good"? If Clyde's chooses to allow smoking on their premises, it's their concern, not that of some group of nicotine nannies. As long as Clyde's is willing to risk losing the patronage of those who choose not to subject themselves to the unproven dangers of second-hand smoke, that would seem to be solely the prerogative of the owners.

         Taken on balance, I consider government mandates to private property owners and government proscriptions on individual behaviors to be a substantially greater threat to my continuing respiration than "second-hand smoke". And it is this issue, not smoking itself, that was the subject of my rant.
         Yours in liberty,

John Taylor is the Maryland Coordinator, Libertarian Second Amendment Caucus. (I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Ernest Hancock for helping me understand what turned out to be a not-so-difficult point after all.)

EasyNet supports the Libertarian Enterprise. See us at http://www.ezez.com

Next to advance to the next article, or Previous to return to the previous article, or Index to return to The Libertarian Enterprise, Number 31, July 1, 1997.