Promises are supposed to be kept; I promised to elaborate on some of the ideas, briefly mentioned in my previous post. To remind, these were my suggestions about what we could and should do about crushing Tobacco Control, beyond just talking to each other. But we are weak and few, you may say. My answer is – no, that we are not. Our only problem is technical, namely, we do not constitute a majority, especially in that group of nations collectively called the West. Or that’s what they are trying to impress on us.

So the problem is how to turn a minority into a majority. Not a big problem, really. Look at how Napoleon did it, if not all the time, then most of the time. Napoleon’s army has not always enjoyed numerical advantage. And it wasn’t always well-fed and in boisterous mood. In fact, there were campaigns when the French army looked like a rag-tag, marauding band. But still it was winning these campaigns, until it lost at last. Napoleon’s secret was that he basically was an artillery man, while his rivals rather trusted infantry and cavalry. Napoleon always knew how to concentrate all the available artillery at the key point, causing unbelievable devastation just at that point, and then rushing in.

So our art of war should be in using whatever resources we have at some weak point of our enemies’ defenses. It can be one small country, like Greece, Austria, or maybe even Japan, it can be an area of a country – anything goes to achieve even a modest success, whatever it may be. In any case, even a small success will look huge, at least because TC is not used to defeats, it’s not even used to holding an equal and honest debate. And then some skills in publicity will do the rest.

It’d be wise to treat the first couple of battles as an exercise. And it’d be right to start the next trial attack immediately after the first one, while tempers are still hot. Mind you, a defeat or two is nothing for us – we are used to it. But even a draw will be a big disaster for TC.

Now, let’s talk about the problem of generations. I’ve said, in my previous post, that “we need to raise up enough of young people to participate, which is an interesting challenge. I’d hate to see us as a gathering of old people, exchanging memories of a kind, reasonable and comfortable world before the TC came along”.

There are in fact several problems here. One is, as I said, that the new generation is not likely to fight for something (good life, comfortable world) that it did not experience. So you have to admit that TC’s pet idea to humiliate one generation (us) so as to discourage the next one from smoking – and from many other things – might have something there.

The other problem is that too many very bad people (TC included) have a habit of using that fiery youth for own purposes, like in revolutions. And there is a lot of young people who know it well and stay aloof. We may have nothing to lose, but the young ones know they may lose a lot. They are both fiery and cautious.

In my opinion, we should never try to use younger generations unless they really want it. Bastards and morons we are not. Let TC or Islamic terrorists do it (and they do, using the same brain-washing technology). But if and when we see somebody young wishing to join, we should not keep such people as sidekicks. We need them as full-fledged members, with their own wisdom and pride. One more interesting problem is that other generations have already developed their own mode of resistance, and that’s vaping. That’s something to fight for, far as they are concerned.

What we have here is a rather typical military situation, resembling the one in Syria (Islamic State and other foreigners – local opposition – the Government and the majority of the nation), or in China at WW2 (the Nationalists – the Reds – the Japanese). In each case one side hated the other two and was fighting both. But somebody still won these wars, and we have to know how they did it. They did it through clever alliances. So I think that we need to forge some alliance with the vapers, and do it through the Warsaw-based Nicotine Forum. Right now they are starting to draft the agenda for the Warsaw meeting next summer (the present one goes on as I write it), and nothing precludes them from planning a cession on good old smoking in 2019.

The leaders of the vaping movement are the former TC people, who have split from the core group, thinking that they found a magic cure from evil and that they are “reducing harm”. Simply speaking, they hate smoke as much as the remaining part of TC does. But we do have a common enemy, and that’s the core TC who are using the same lies they used on us, utilizing the same bullying tactics on vapers as the ones used against smokers. The vapers are obviously taken aback, and are trying to shame their former comrades.

So we have a common goal with vaping movement– to sideline the zealots. And then, after we do it, we may debate between us. I personally have nothing against a vaper blowing out huge vapor clouds next to me. Maybe that vaper can tolerate me, too, knowing about the ugly lies being spread about both of us by the same people.

I was glad to read the comments, made by my friends who read my previous post.  A lot of options were mentioned in these comments – addressing Cato institute and the rest of it. There are many smokers’ rights groups in various countries and in the EU, which could also be approached for the sake of achieving global coordination. And then there is Asia out there, which, I’m afraid, is becoming TC’s main goal currently. A lot can and should be done about it.

Now, we all have friends and families, and I’m sure we can talk to them right now. A fearless celebrity may be among these people, willing to speak out. And, who knows, maybe there is someone who may be willing to donate money, with the proper business plan and accountability. But I suspect we won’t be discussing that in the current onstage manner – something like an organization has to be created, better sooner than later, that will pool all the options and the ideas.

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