The Meaning of Life.
“Existence precedes essence” Sartre, 1946.
We are – before we decide how, to be.
I used to smoke, I happened to identify as a smoker. This, thanks to both the truths and untruths propagated by “Public” Health, entailed a set of beliefs about my life. I thought I was harming myself (mostly true), I thought I was harming others (possibly exaggerated) . This mixed the pleasure of smoking with feelings of self-disgust and guilt. Nonetheless, I continued, for many, many years. Untold tens of thousands of cigarettes. Each one a moment of pleasure and a tiny explosion of self-hate. Next time you see an anti-smoking ad campaign, you might like me, remember that although it had no effect on my smoking it did increase my guilt and lower my feelings of self-worth, tens of times a day. That’s helpful, “Public” Health.
Jump to now.
I vape.
The pleasure remains, the self-loathing is gone.
I am proudly a vaper. I exist and I am happy. I vape for the nicotine, I will not die from the tar.
So what has this got to do with the meaning of life? Well, I’m coming to that …
Life is (as Talk Talk sang) what you make it. Whatever meaning we find in our lives, we are free to decide. Those decisions enhance our lives and create new selves. I can now decide how to be.
There is an almighty battle happening across the world right now because “Public” Health are being called out and their “pharmaceutical” predispositions are being questioned. Millions, if not more, are discovering that vaping works. “Public” health, financed by pharmaceuticals and governments (two groups that will lose out if ecigs take hold), is worried. With so many of us discovering the truth, where is the public in “Public”?
It turns out that vapers are turning away from what they are told and turning towards what they do know, in, and of, themselves. The ever more strident lies of “Public” Health become ever more distant from our experience. We learn to distrust, we learn to critique, we learn to be.
The scales fall from our eyes – political systems are revealed as ways to keep those in power, in power. Power becomes identified with mere money. All from vaping.
I used to exist, now I am.
Vaping, and the bogus-powerful critiques of vaping, have realised an entire generation of ex-smokers.
We are awoken, we exist and we so proudly are.
Liam Bryan
Vapers In Power 