The Tyranny of Lifestyle Choices

My sister actually said to me, that she doesn't hire smokers. She outlined her strategy of offering a five minute break between interviews, giving the interviewee the space to smoke.
If they took it, they were out.

This is, of course, the beginning of lifestyle discrimination. The obese know about it already. And the moral superiority that goes with healthy choices will make fewer people want to abide by them.

My former supervisor at Booz Allen smoked a lot. She also worked at home a few days a week, which is unusual for a supervisor. None of us were allowed to work at home, though. She never actually said that, it was just that every time I did, I was reprimanded, even when I asked for and received permission beforehand.

Now Econo-Girl, to tell the truth, is a bit of a pain to work with. Damn good at what she does, but a pain nonetheless. She sings and dances in her cubicle when in a good mood. She has a minor obsession with Martha Stewart and quotes her a lot. You get the idea. It can get trying for the people around me.

So is my former supervisor a good example of a smoker? No. But with all the swill being passed around about how bad smokers are, it would be easy to meld the two impressions into one. Thus is the power of the media.

Econo-Girl heard a doctor say that eighty percent of all disease is from lifestyle choices. That seems extreme. But it feeds into the "unhealthy is unholy" mean running around these days.

So how is all this stigmatization helping anyone? It isn't.

It just makes everyone feel bad, like airbrushing photos in women's magazines. Not real, but we wanted you to feel bad anyway.