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290 -1~ C~vaSLCL~l Gilgamesh on the Washington Shuttle Peter L. Berger T he amismoking forces are gaining in politi- o) muscle all over the country. Laws and municipal ordinance.e are passed to prohibit smoking in every son of public place and• where that is not (or not yet) feasible, to segregate smokers in ever-smaller areas. There is pressure to further restrict advertising for eigarettes and to abolish federal subsidies for tobacco growers. But what is most interesting on the level of everyday life is the aggressiveness and the moral fervor with which this campaign is being conducted. There are segments of the American population in which the hostility to smoking and to smokers has taken on the quality of a crusade. Ar.d if we have learned anything from the politics of this century• it is to pay nervous attention to any new crusades appearing on the scene. I freely confess that I'm not a disinterested observer I smoke. Also I'm given to political paranoia: I can foresee a time in the our future when smoking will be prohibited evMwhere except by consenting adults in the privacy of their bedroom (and, to be honest. I don't trust the antismokers to stop short of the bedroom for very long either). Or• alternatively, I ean see myself puffing my cigarillos in a fenced-off area near the toilets in my favorite restaurant, or slinking through the streets with a scarlet "S" pinned on my lapel• or having to make biweekly visits to a social worker to have my permit renewed (you see, I refused group therapy). Let these visions not be taken lightly: I have developed a wis- senachafrliche respect for my pannoias; most of them have turned out to be predictions, at Iout when it comes to political reality. Some stipulations, to be sure, are in order. Undoubt- edly there are places where nonsmokers have long been annoyed by the proxinrity of smokers. Undnubtedly there have been thoughtless smokers who have caused discomfon•sometimesevenreal suffaring, to others. No fair-minded person, even one who smokes twenty cigarillos a day, will objcct to rules that protect those nused discomfort or pain by people blowing smoke at them. But the current campaign goes far beyond the establishment of such rules. More important psychologi- peTta L BEaoalt is Professor of Sociology ar Rutgers Univer- sity and an Associate Editor of Warldview. His latest heok is foei.g Up to Moderniry. - cally, the aggress(veness of the nmpaign tannot be ~ explained by such rational grievances. Also, of course, there is evidence to the effect that smoking is unhealthy (though, let it be added• the evidence is less conclusive than the antismoking crusadcrs would have us believe). r_ `r But• once again. the thrvst and the mood of the eampaign make it implausible to seek maives in concern for smokeri health. Not for a moment do I believe that these people want to protect me from emphysema. As a maner of fact I believe they would he quite delighted if I got emphysema-or worse-as just punishment for my wicked habit. It's sort of the way I assess the motives of Jehovah's Witnesses: They stand on the street corner offering me a copy of A waEe! because it's their duty to do so. But they knnw• that come the day of reckoning very few will be saved-and, the way they look at me, I know that they don't really mind my passing by my chance of joining that dlite. ln the business of salvation it's long been true that "the fewer. the merrier," and one doesn't have to read Jonathan Edwards to know that the well- deserved suffering of the damned is one of the pleasures of heaven. m digressing. Back to Wfssenschafr: Sex is in; smoking is out. If you don't believe me read the personals columns in the left-wing press (much to be recommended generally as a depth-probe into the consciousness of the New Class; by their Iibidos thou shalt know them) and count the number of times that nnnsmoking is listed as a trait wamed in sought-after sex partners. lt's come to this: "Trim college professor, late 30's, seeks liberated female forcomplementary relation- ship Ithar means he's marriedl, Tuesday and Thursday aftetnnons, NYC or f:annecticut -nnnamoier. "Westchester County cnuple, happily married, seeks ynung man or wuman• early 20's. fur mutually satistae- tory explorations in new life-styles-tons,eokerr." "Hispanic male, currently incarcerated, iovites con•e- spnndence from submissive females, race imma- teri a l-.ronsmo k en ...... Recently (as the result of a lawsuit, I believe) Eastern Airlines substantially decreased the space allowed to smokers on its planes. The new restriction also applies to the New York-Washington shuttle, a conveyance vital to the existence of politicians, lobbyists, agents of the 43 291 ee ( wpln nvn w/, ra tYl rAn It 11311 S..uth Kutran'(:...rrmtu•nt, irwlividnala WIM, rauy a trtrvant hundred thousand do(lars in auache ca..es, and other number : people with nervous-making life•styles, mostly males, senseofc mostly smokers. But never mind: Justice is blind. 's is to be . So the other day I was on the shuttle, joining the orhrr ca, despente rush tnward the new Jim Crnw .rction in dse attrarted' hack n/ the plane near the toileta, whese rhey kaep ILc vauirws cC nsygen equipment and the old cnpieso/Brsinrxr Wrrt. I mom. It lost the race to the last smoker's seat to a fat young man autamolsi in a seersucker suit, with ten hallpnint pens stuck in bis campaigr shirt pocket and clutching/w•o aitachc nscs (an agent far (and, in tI both the South Korean and the North Korean gov. ; its capita ernments?). Consequently I was forced to sit in rigid machine, abstinence in the enormously enlarged nonsmokers' sphere, si section (the man next to me, smiling sheepishly-smoked the cause funivelr-f was tempted to emulate him, but I'm a law-abiding citizen; also I'm given to anxieries, and the stewardess-pardon, the flight attendant-bore a strik- ing resemblance to Bella Abzug...). I suffered (it so aappens that I'm also given to fear of flying-Erica Jong hasn'r done a thing for mr-but that's another story). As everyone knows, suffering is conducive to insight. And so somewhere over Chesapeake Bay (the plane suddenly lurched and the engines didn't sound quite right for a moment there) I had what my teacher Alfred Schutz used to call an "aha experience." I think I know now what is going on in this department of our cullure: Anrismoking is the new• anti-Senrirism. And. like the old anri- Semirism, it has 70 ,:n wirh the qaesr Jor Anmonaliry. I recognize that, at first reading, these propo• sitions may lack plausibility. I suggest that the propositions be scrutinized by following, a very simple analytic procedure (Wfssenschofr again): The antismokin g attitude is one irenr in the consciousness of a specific group of people; it should be seen in relation to aher irems in that conseiousness. At that point. I comend, my propositions gain plausibility. But fint Who are these people? Thar question is easily answered: We are talking about the aforementioned New Class- the people who consider themselves imelleetuals but who are better described as that new segment of the upper middle class that derives its living (and ipso faeto its material and ideological interests) from the so-called knowledge industry. Daniel Bell and Irving Kristol have given us the basic sociological understanding of this class. It is a minority in the American population but- because of its rclation to the cducation and maxs cnmmunicarions s)•sgcros• a very influential one. It is both the matris and tlrc principal clientele of most of our recent mometnents of cultural inna~ation• from the "new consciousness" to the "new pa(itics." Many recent events on the American scene make much better sense if one sees them as part of a class struggle (in quite classical Marxist terms) between this New Ciass and the old upper middle class (Kristol calls Commerci us, and the organic m maceuliq: hallucinog medical es conspirac aninremio. hcptw:hont this same from the c the latest I industry. the lauer, tour courr, the business class). The outcome of ;C this class struggle has not yet been decided- but there is little doubt that both the cultural and the political power pose. Whar of the New Class has been on the rise, good a terr. Not all elements of the consciousness of this clau are What is sa

291 s u / wOtnlrvnw /,ralVt6ault1aN . S,wt6 Karaa'!»,vrtnuNnl, in.(ivithtals WIN/ rarty a hundred thcwsand dollars in attachc cases, and other people with nervous-maling life-stylcs. mostly males, mostly smokers. But never mind: Justice is blind. Sa the other day I was on the shuttle, joining the desperate rush tnward the new Jim Crow .rctinn in dN• hack of the plane ncar the anilets, Whvse they keep the oa ygea equipmcnt and the old cnpie%of Rrsinr.u Week. I tost the race to the last smokci s scat to a rat ytwng man in a seersucker sah, with ten ballpoint pens stuck in his shin pocket and clutching tN•o aitaehc cascs (an agent for both the South Korean and the North Korean gnv. ernments?). Consequently I was forced to sit in rigid abstinence in the enormously enlarged nonsmokers' section (the man next to me, smiling sheepishly, smoked funivelr-e was tempted to emulate him, but I'm a Iaw.abiding citizen; also I'm given to anxieties, and the stewardess-pardon, the flight attendant-bore a strik- ing resemblance to Bella Abtug...). I suffered (it so happens that I'm also given to fear of flying-Erica long hasn't done a thing for me-but that's another story). As everyone knows, suffering is conducive to insight. And so somewhere over Chesapeake Bay (the plan,e suddenly larched and the engines didn't sound quite right for a moment there) I had what my teacher Alfred Schutz used to call an "aha experience." I think I know now what is going on in this department of our culture: Anrisreoking is the eew anri-Sernitisre. And, like the old anri- Senritism, it has:V ,:e wfrh the qrest for immonality. T recognize that, as first reading, these propo- sitions may lack plausibility. I suggest that the propositions be scrutinised by following. a very simple analytic proccdure (Wissenichafr again): The antismoking utitude is one item in tbe consciousness of a specific group of people; it should be seen in relation to orher items ia that consciousness. At that point, I conund, my propositions gain plausibility. But first: Who are these people? Thar question is easily answered: we are talking about the aforementioned New Class- the people who consider themselves intellectuals but who are better described as that new segment of the upper middle class that derives its living (and ipso facto its material and ideological interests) from the so-called knowled:e industry. Daniel Bell and Irving Kristol have given us the basic sociological understanding of this class. It is a minority in the American population but, because of its relation to the educatian and mass communications systems, a very influcntial one. It is both the matrix and the principal clientele of most of nur recent movements of cultural innovation, from the "new consciousness" to the "ne.v politics." Many recent events on the American scene make much better scnse if one sees them as pan of a class struggle (in quite classical Marxist terms) between this New Class and the old upper middle class (Kristol calls the latter, torr cwn, the business class). The outcome of this class struggle has not yet been decided, but there is little doubt that both the cultural and the political power of the New Class has been on the rise. Not all elements of the consciousness of this class are tc(rvaro to dN• anti.u-kinf iwN:. hut .wptining number arc. These are all rclated to an overwhelming sensa nf corruptinn and pollution from which the society a is to be clean.ed. Ask this simple question: What are other causes to which the antismokers are likely to be ~anrartrd? Thrtr is, Muhahly mnst impnnam nf all, Ihe varitws cau%es cs(Ntuvd by the cnvnunmenlalisl move- mcm. It hcFan with Ralph Nra(cr's war against the sutamohite. It finds its fiwcmoa expression today in the campaign against nuclear energy. Modern industrialism (and, in the ctmsciousnetis of tlN: New Class, especially its capitalist version) is perceived as a gigantic death- machine, destroying the earth, poisoning the atmo- sphcre, spreading every sort of plague. Then there are the causes related to the various health movements. ..~~ .i Commercially produced foods arc supposed to poison us, and the only salvation is in the return to some form of organic nutrition. The drugs produced by the phar- maceutical industry (with the possible exception of hallucinogenic ones) are also death-dealing, and the medical establishment has been an accomplice in this conspiracy to destroy us (Ivan lllich-perhaps nniotemionally -has hclped to IeFitimate this panieular hy(NN:Iu,nJrial. And thcn thete is tIN; unmg affinity of this same class 6x e.er% con,eicable type of thenpy, from the conventional services of the psychoanalyst to the latest products of the California personal-liberation industry. Other elements could be mentioned, but these three will do for the present pur- pose. What do they have in common? Hypochondria is as good a term as any. But one could also put it differently: What is said here is that all of us would lead long and 0 I I I

292 Cica/thy Itvcs, rJ nwlv r6ia w raer prnrrlw xwrre nJ • pali'rriew .rre rnwmvd, • Thes the coltural scene is rampaM with utopias ol health: Get rid of the automohile, han nuclear enerty- trod we would all live in bucolic idylls, riding our bicyeles aloeB crystalline brooks. Eat nothing but fand grown on natural manarc-and you'll never Sa ill. Follow this ar that therapemic treatment and you will tteverbeansiousagain,nevcrfrustratcd,ncverdcfeated. ls it too fanciful to push these promises to their final 1'tmit? I don't think so. For here is the finally implied promise: Do these tlFiaei-and rn' will live fo.nrr. Only If one understands this can one understand the intense hostility to those (be they individuals or "the system•') who ate believed to stand in the way of this vision of eternal health: They-ihe carmakets. the advocates of atsclear eaergy, the makers of nonorpnic breakfast cereals, those who stop me from havin{ all the orfutns I aeed-and of course the smokets-+hen ire the ent:mies of life, the purve;wrs of death, the one great obstacle between me and the redeemed state. It is not necessary to deny all empirical complaints of these movements in order to make this analysis. Thus, for eaample, thete are very real threats to life in the diffusion of nuclear enerty, threats that oujht to be taken very scriausly in the public debate. In other words. l'm aor saying that there are no rational arpvmenaon the side of the Clamshell Alliancr, I on sayinj that these ntional arguments are insufficient to explain the phenomenon of the current antinuclear atovement. Indeed, almost every nuse has some kernel of truth, but to understand the energizing passions behind a catue the validity of its empirisal claims is often beside the point. This is onfortunate, to be sure, but it cannot be helped (those who have aot learned this lesson frotn Mars may leain it from Vilfredo Ptuato). ]ean-Paul Sattre, in his book AatrSenrire and Jew (incidentally, his last intelligent comment on any politi- eally relevant issae), interpreted modern anti-Semitism as a flight froen the human condition. It was a profound and profoundly cortect interpretation. For the anti- Semite it is the Jew who is the enemy of Iife, the corrupting and polluting force eating away at the health of the society. Therefore in battling the Jew the anti- Semite is at the same time struggling for his own redemption, and the victory over the ]ew is ipso fatxo a victory of life over death. This vision. Sartre tells us, is only possible by denying same fundamental and in- endicable elements of the condition of being human. For lo be human means to live in an imperfect world, with all the anxieties and ills dwt Fo with this. MtKt important td dl, ta be human means to be mortal. Thus anti- Semitism, in the final analysis, is a flisht from mortality and (in the mode that Sanra called "bad faith") a denial of mortality. Let me make clear that !'m nor suggesting a moral equivalence between anti•Semitism and these contempo- rary forms of utopianism. Anti-Semitism, even in its less virulent forms, is a phenomenon sui jeneris, with a moral perversity all its own that should not be trivialized by throwing it into the sanxcatetory with,a lot of ather ----W-tltVA18]N / 46 pfn:twnncna. Neverthele.m tt is very u.cful to undcrstand tbe nrmmtm rlrnrnts it %batr. with nther tm Iwknees of ctmtcmptKary conseiuu.naas. Nor shnutd we overlook the fact that a new variety of anti•Scmitism (still Scner. ally camouflaged a.s "anti•7.iunism") has found a re- spunse precisely in the utopian milieu being discussed here . , ~ One significont fart nw+t stifl Is; added tn the arT,u• ment: The Fraup that is given to these utopias is almost certainly the mn.t secularized sector of the Amerieaa population. In other words these are people who have heen deprived (t+r, if ytw will, who have deprived themselves) of the consolations of relition in the face of mortality and all the mher imperfections of the human eondition. It is not surprising, then, that the ni=ht from mortality takes an a rather frantic character in this particular ambience. In the absence of God the prospect of death becomes muelr harder to deal with. There is, of eourse, the geat possibil ity of atnicism, but very few are capable of that. (Perhaps Sigmund.Freud was the last jreat stoic. Certainly not Sartre, who=ot hooked on the "bad faith" of revolution.) And thus it is with as asain, that ar-oW quest forthe sacret of immortality. l,onf, long ago Gilsamesh looked for it in his journeys to fad the Land of the Livint. For a moment he thought he had found the sectet in a plant that =rew on a fanway shote, and he exclaimed: "This plant is a plant apan. whereby a man may regain his life's breath.... lts name shail be 'Man Becomes Young in Old Ape.' I myself shall eat h, and thu.s return to the state of my youth." Then a serpent ante out of the water and carried off the plant and (according to the Akkadian version of the Giltamesh story) "Gil; mesh sat down by the water and we,x, his tears runninc iown over his (ace." One may say that the whole drama of biblical religion is one lon` effort to wipe away these tears over the anguish of human finitude-but the effort is not an easy one, and its fundamental presupposition is an acceptance of reality and a turning away from the illusions of faise promises. It was another serpent, speaking of another plant, who promised: "You will nor die.... Wllten you eat of it yoar eyes will be opened, and you will be like God." , i But let me return from the ancient Near East to the Washington shuttle. We are 211 sinners. None of us an all that good at copine with the human condition, none of ' 1 us have sofficirnt faifh. (If I did I'm surr I mwlda smlke. lY+r what smoking is finally all about is a profound impatience befnre the myqtery of time, and this too is a lack of trust in God who is the Lord of time. But that is yet another story.) All of m are fugitives from mortality. Perhaps we can acquire a measure of tolerana from this undentandinf: Tolerance of each other- which precludes crusades. And tolerance of the impm fections of the .rotld-whit:h frees us from the illusion of utopianism. '0Do you happen to have a lisht, Ms. Gilgamesh?Thank you. No, ('m not sure either where this plane is Qoin=...• -. 293 STATEMnN RODGER L, BICF My name is Rodger L. Bick; ~he San Joaquin Hematology & Oncolog an assistant professor of inedicine, and medical oncology, at the Schoc -enter for the Health Sciences in :linical faculty for hematology ani :.A. Hospital in Los Angeles, and ho: ,.c the Wayne State University Specic ?asearch in Detroit and at the ::niversity of Kansas Medical School i: I received my medical deg California at Irvine School of Medi 1974, I was the Director of the HE Laboratory, Chief of Hematology/Medic Yledical Education at the Kern C Bakersfield, California, From 1974 Bay Area Hematology Oncology Mec Hematology Oncology Clinical and Ree Monica. From 1980 to date, I have bf Allied Health Professions and of Nu: California State University in Bakers