You Got a Light? points out something I’ve thought about as I walked past countless smokers just outside countless office buildings:
But I would observe that smokers now constitute one of the most fascinating and largely ignored social groups in America — transcending all rules of race, class, gender or position. They have become a sort of persecuted minority, with many of the feelings of commonality that such a status can bring.Any smoker is socially allowed to talk to any other smoker at any time, to ask for a cigarette or a light. The most successful opening line in the known universe — male or female — is “Can I bum a cigarette?” It’s non-threatening, instantly personal and highly sympathetic. All smokers know what it’s like to crave a cigarette and be without one, and so they are always willing to help, always empathetic and egalitarian. No other social phenomenon is quite like it.
With the spreading restrictions on smoking in offices, restaurants and other public spaces, smokers are being pushed into ever smaller fringe spaces, making their community all the more tightly united. They sympathize with one another as members of what they perceive to be a shunned group. To one another, in the safety of their reserved zones, they are struggling, suffering heroes and comrades.
In office politics, smoking can be a great aid to connection-making — almost worth the toxins to some.