User talk:Nikogda Nichevo

Welcome to TobaccoWiki, Nikogda. Thanks for the contribution! I've re-arranged it somewhat to agree with SourceWatch's editing policies and format, and moved the commentary portion of the article to the talk page.

What are your interests in tobacco? Glad to have you on board. Anne Landman, TobaccoWiki editor

The tobacco exception
Hello Anne, et al. I'm glad you asked that question...

The story of the rise of tobacco in the U.S., from colonial times before independence to date, is a story of the cultivation of rule by exception within the framework of rule of law. One of the great dangers posed by the U.S. today as a world power — especially the effort to export its version of "democracy" to other parts of the world —arises precisely from its excepting the United States government itself from any of the mandates established or laid down in international law. This exceptionalism is the fruit of a very long line of development that begins with the highly protected position of colonial tobacco production as a revenue generator for colonial governments. Taxation of tobacco was one of the few revenue sources specifically reserved for the federal government from its founding. The grower also enjoyed a semi-protected status that was unaffected by tobacco prices abroad and of course not buffeted by the vicissitudes of the slave trade, since its cultivation was profitable on far smaller patches of land that cotton growing required.

The vertically-integrated behemoth of modern times that we call Big Tobacco continues to enjoy highly exceptional treatment within the U.S. system, even with the rise of all manner of environmental, health and consumer protection regulations. I cannot disagree in theory with the the focus of the Centre for Media and Democracy that Big Tobacco is a challenge to the requirements of a modern democratic polity that needs serious restriction if not outright cutting down once and for all. However, I also cannot help but notice the long-standing structural norm of how the various levels of government treat the tobacco business. It never should have survived into the 21st century but precisely for the fact that it prospers as an exception within the rule of law.

Thus, Big Tobacco's treatment is something of a metaphor for this "Rule by Exception" — which is the content of the actual signal received by the rest of the world from the invasions and occupations fostered and supported by Washington. Meanwhile, Big Tobacco's own actions are something of an index of the increasing arbitrariness of U.S. corporate behaviour emanating from the boardrooms and executive suites of its leading financial and industrial combines. In U.S. governments' conduct of foreign policy, which is what impacts other peoples and countries directly, this increasing arbitrariness takes the form of a kind of anarchy raised to the level of authority.

Lurking just beneath the surface of the already horrific toll inflicted on individual and public health by Big Tobacco and governments' cavalier abandonment of serious regulatory enforcement is the most fundamental and oldest question of all in any polity or society: WHO DECIDES?