Occasionally, after dinner I like to smoke a cigar. So the other day at a restaurant I went outside to a smoking area. Another customer came and lit a cigarette. 2 others were already there. A little guy who looked up and said, “Look Dad!” And blew some smoke rings into the air.
“Pretty good!” said the father who was smoking a pipe.
The cigarette smoker’s eyes were peeled back. “Excuse me, but how old are you, kid?”
“I’m Ten!” the kid proudly blurted.
The cigarette guy looked at the father and said, “You let your kid smoke?”
“Only one or two a week. Other than a little smoking we are a healthy family, right kiddo?”
“Right Dad!”
“I don’t mean to intrude on your way of doing things. But I got 2 kids– in there at that table eating desert. But I wouldn’t dare let them start out and get hooked smoking… like me.”
“Those two kids over there. What are they eating for desert?”
“One got cake and the other ordered ice cream.”
“You are aware that there is a worldwide diabetes epidemic, 90% of the people in the USA have metabolic disease. And you are criticizing me for letting my kid smoke once in a while? My kid doesn’t eat that crap. We eat only healthy stuff. Right kiddo?”
“Right O!”
“O com ‘on! Letting a kid eat cake and ice cream once in while? It’s not going to kill them.”
“How often do you give them that crap?”
“Crap? They only eat that stuff 3 or 4 times a week with moderation. You let your kid smoke and you are call cake and ice cream crap?”
“Just what is causing metabolic disease in 90 percent of Americans? It certainly isn’t smoking. And your kids are eating sugar more than my kid is smoking.”
“Oh com ‘n! Moderation. Having a little sugar occasionally is not going to kill you.”
“Do you let your kids do heroin or cocaine occasionally? In moderation?”
“Of course not.”
“Why do people think sugar is OK in moderation, but heroin or cocaine and just one cigarette is never OK for a kid?”
“If your kid wanted to occasionally take heroin instead of an occasional cigarette you’d be OK with that?”
“No, are you kidding? I would never a let my kid touch heroin. But I am just going by your logic. If sugar and processed food are OK in moderation, why do you object to other drugs for kids in moderation?”
“Aren’t they worse? You are saying sugar is as bad as heroin and cocaine?”
“They are all drugs, aren’t they? They change the brain. That’s a terrible thing to do to child’s brain.”
“Wait a second… You are saying that sugar is a drug?”
“Yes. Among scientists it’s common knowledge. Haven’t you read the headline articles that MRI brain scans of sugar have the same effect on the brain as hard drugs? Goggle it! Tell me if anything you find to the contrary is not Pepsi-co or Coke paid research.”
“Com ‘n. Exaggeration!”
“Exaggeration my ass! Find the scientific articles and reports: The books… the authors.. the researchers… Gary Taubes, Robert Lustig, then make up your mind.”
“There are a million opinions on everything.”
“Your job in life is to distinguish the opinions from the facts. You know the saying, ‘you have the right to your opinion, but you don’t have the right to your own facts’. So instead of going on the Internet and watching videos of dancing dogs, research the info. Then say to yourself, ‘Am I giving my kids drugs?’
“Com ‘on! My kids eat healthy stuff also.”
“I knew a heroin addict who said to me, ‘drugs aren’t everything.’”
“You’re overboard man! You’re comparing my kids’ sugar junk food in moderation with a heroin addict? And you go on about this stuff, but in letting your son smoke it appears you are going by the motto, that all is OK in moderation.”
“No, I don’t think smoking is good even in moderation. Because it can accelerate and turn into a more advanced addiction. Just like.. even if your kids are eating sugar and junk food in moderation it can accelerate and turn into a life of obesity, diabetes and a score of diseases. All drugs are the world’s biggest scam. Because with drugs you always develop a tolerance, and you always need more! more! My kid smokes because I am not a perfect father, and we should probably quit.” The man patted his son on the shoulder and said, “What do you think son? How about if we switch to a cigar or a pipe. That way you wouldn’t inhale and it would be healthier.”
“OK, Dad. I’d like to try a pipe like you smoke. Can you still blow smoke rings with a pipe?”
“Sure look,” said the father and started blowing rings. “Of course, I am not as good at it as you are!”
The kid blew some more smoke rings to rival his father and said, “Yeah Dad! I’m pretty good, aren’t I?” as the cigarette smoker looked on with eyes peeled back.
“I don’t know, I am not going say anything to anyone, and I don’t know what the laws are. But other people just might report you to some government child affairs agency. I’ll just be happy if my kids in there don’t see this bad example.”
The pipe smoker looked in the window and said, “Are those your kids at the center table?”
“Yeah.”
“They are both eating sugar and entranced by cell phones! Do you mean to tell me that you criticize me for letting my kid smoke and your kids, in addition to drugging themselves with sugar, have cell phones!”
“What kid doesn’t have cell phone nowadays?”
“Are you up on the latest science as to what cell phones are doing to kids’ brains?”
“Oh com ‘on!”
“Just how old are your kids?”
“One is your son’s age and the other a year younger.”
“I’d let my kid smoke every day before I’d give him a cell phone.”
“Extremism!”
“Actually, my opinion is based on researching several studies on what this cell phone phenomena does to children– isn’t it common knowledge? All the studies showing that cell phone and social media cause everything from sleep impairment, decreased learning ability, concentration to a drastic increase in depression and suicide. And even if these studies are exaggerated… or mistaken [but is that likely?], you still let you kids loose with cell phones with no sense of caution? You don’t make your kids wear seat belts either?” *
“Every kid has a cell phone. They get their homework on it. Is that bad also?”
“What? Homework wasn’t invented before the cell phones? Do you blow up your house to kill a mouse? Likewise you may be blowing up brains just to aid homework?”
“Extremism! Again.”
“If you think I’m an extremist because I deny my son a cell phone, I’d still give him a cell phone before I’d let him play video games, and I’d let him play video games before I let him watch TV and movies. Because in front of a TV you are in a passive zombie trance. At least with video games you’re pushing buttons.”
“Your kid doesn’t have a cell phone, he doesn’t watch TV, play video games, nor watch movies. Or eat any sugar or processed food. Where do you guys live? In a cave? Just what do you do all the time?”
“Do you mean you can’t think of anything people do without gadgets or mesmerizing screens? Besides eating junk food? Son, tell your fellow cigarette man what you do all the time.”
“I go in the forest near our house and chase after lizards and squirrels. Sometimes I catch some. I help dad in the garden. I’m growing giant squash! Bigger than a bear! You should see ‘em! And if I get other kids in our neighborhood to leave their houses we play football, basketball… and we hike around in the forest. At night I read books.”
The man took a puff from his cigarette and looked through the window. His 2 kids were fixed to their phones with the light reflecting off their faces. One kid slowly moved up the spoon with ice cream to his mouth with his eyes glued to the phone screen. “You can read on the Internet, via your phone also. I don’t know, but I hope that is what my kids are doing now.”
“I’d like to know… Perhaps you can get your kids to ask Chat GTP… how many kids with cell phones are using them to read informative, educational and enlightening articles?
“All the world’s info, knowledge, vast libraries, and people are watching YouTube videos of car crashes, or liking pet poodle photos of friends they never met…”
“People have the choice, don’t they? To watch dancing shark videos or read articles on the Theory of Relativity, or history.”
“Do kids have the choice?”
“My kids, via cell phone and the Internet are open to a universe of info and possibilities.”
“On the other hand, my kid is here with us interacting with real people.”
“Well, I got to hand it to your kid.” The man took a drag from his cigarette and looked at him, “Isn’t our conversation boring?”
“No”, said the 10 year old, “I think it’s boring watching TV on a cell phone!”
“Oh yeah. Why?”
“Because, like my dad says. You are just sitting there on your butt! In a trance.”
“But my kids have all the opportunity to find all the world’s information and knowledge. Like you reading at night, my kids are open to an infinite library. To instant contact with anyone.”
“But is it more a vehicle for peddling crappy commercial products, mind wasting inane games, spell fixing videos. But worse, isn’t all this stuff training your kids?”
“Yeah. It’s training them to be literate, to find info and knowledge.”
“I think it is more training for kids to change their state of mind, their moods, to flee from boredom, without having to do anything physical. Is it any wonder that the first generation that grew up with TV was the drug generation. I think you are training your kids to be addicts. Addicts all have in common that they don’t need to do anything, create anything, go anywhere to change their state of mind.”
“You are an extremist! You’re saying my kids don’t do anything because they have cell phones? They play sports, they go to school, they do homework, just like your son.”
“Ask Chat GPT just how may hours kids were out in the fresh air 100 years ago compared to now? Were children getting more physical exercise? Were they interacting more with live human beings?”
The guy took a last puff and put his cigarette out in ash tray outside near the door, “So … before I go I want to ask you; your kid eats no sugar, he watches no TV, nor movies, plays no video games, has no cell phone, and furthermore, you also think kids who do those things grow up to be addicts. Just how, living diffenently from everyone, do you guys get on in this modern world?”
“To be sane in a crazy world makes you even crazier than normal crazy, doesn’t it?”
*/ledger.humanetech.com
