Imagine a pill was invented which contained all the nutrients, vitamins, proteins and starches that one needs for optimal health. One takes the pill once a day, drinks water, and one is guaranteed a healthy body. However, only half of the population takes this pill; other people still eat food. Life, they argue, is about quality, and they take great joy in the religion of food.
Of course, there is a powerful correlation between food-eaters and younger mortality (they die of heart disease, they get osteoporosis, are a lot more likely to develop cancer because of food-additives etc.), which leads the pill-takers to characterise the food-eaters as suicidal, stupid, as well as unattractive (eating carries with it a range of aesthetic problems: it stains clothes, it destroys teeth, it can cause halitosis and so on).
So, some food eaters attempt to become pill-takers, but they find that even though their bodies soon adapt to not needing food, they still crave it. Their friends go out for meals in restaurants and they feel excluded. They miss the physical satisfaction of putting things in their mouths and chewing. They miss the ritual moments it marks in their day. They miss food as a crutch when they have a bad day, and as something basic they can rely on to make themselves feel good. They miss celebratory meals and religious feasts.
In short, they feel they have lost something intrinsic to themselves. They are healthy, but they feel like they have sacrificed something important in order to be so, and they feel hollow.
This is what it feels like to give up smoking. The only difference is that people are born needing to eat, and learn to need to smoke. But I promise you, the need becomes no less intense.
Of course, there is a powerful correlation between food-eaters and younger mortality (they die of heart disease, they get osteoporosis, are a lot more likely to develop cancer because of food-additives etc.), which leads the pill-takers to characterise the food-eaters as suicidal, stupid, as well as unattractive (eating carries with it a range of aesthetic problems: it stains clothes, it destroys teeth, it can cause halitosis and so on).
So, some food eaters attempt to become pill-takers, but they find that even though their bodies soon adapt to not needing food, they still crave it. Their friends go out for meals in restaurants and they feel excluded. They miss the physical satisfaction of putting things in their mouths and chewing. They miss the ritual moments it marks in their day. They miss food as a crutch when they have a bad day, and as something basic they can rely on to make themselves feel good. They miss celebratory meals and religious feasts.
In short, they feel they have lost something intrinsic to themselves. They are healthy, but they feel like they have sacrificed something important in order to be so, and they feel hollow.
This is what it feels like to give up smoking. The only difference is that people are born needing to eat, and learn to need to smoke. But I promise you, the need becomes no less intense.
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