Smoking as a Habitual Activity - Essay Example

Most people have not been able to evaluate the evidence associated with this claim, since such claims have been associated with attempts to interfere with individual prerogatives and freedoms in a world where such freedoms are guaranteed (Mansnerus, n.p.). Additionally, a correlation has been found between smoking and educational income according to the Centers for Disease Control, where 28.9% of the black population and 26.4% of the white population have been found to be smokers with corresponding financial inadequacies (Mansnerus, n.p.).

Analysis

Smoking is a leisurely habitual activity undertaken by individuals at their own discretion and it has been a rampant behavior traditionally. According to the Symbolic interaction theory, people act according to the way they interpret their surrounding world, with the people developing and using certain symbolic meanings in the process of social interaction, to represent their perception of life (Chambliss and Eglitis, 77). In this respect, the argument that smoking is now associated with deviant behavior becomes subjective, considering the fact that it has to rely on the individual interpretation of the behavior. There have been several attempts by different authorities to restrict the behavior, owing to its health consequence such as cancer and lung diseases that are associated with smoking.  

However, the attempt to introduce such controls has been met with a lot of resistance from the people who participate in smoking habits as well as the civil rights activists, who defend the behavior as an individual prerogative (Mansnerus, n.p.).The resistance stems from the belief that smoking is not just a leisurely activity, but a representation of a people’s freedom and prerogative. This argument can be backed by the utilitarianism theory, which provides that individuals act in a way that will maximize their self-interests (Chambliss and Eglitis, 122). This theory is based on the premise that individuals have knowledge of alternatives in different aspects of life, understand the consequences of the alternatives, and have the rationality of ordering the alternatives preferentially.

This means that the attempt to control smoking behavior on the basis of its association with social defiance does not hold reasonable ground. Nevertheless, when smoking behavior is part of individual choices, it cannot be divorced from the fact that smoking is a fundamental behavior that is first adopted by social deviants, especially at their formative stages. Smoking is always the preceding fan activity for the majority of those who eventually end up involved in drug abuse, since they start with smoking cigarettes, advancing to more illegal drugs such as marijuana and eventually into hard drugs. This simply means that it is subject to the interaction and interpretation of individuals and for scientific studies to establish the connection between smoking and deviant behavior.