The Traits We Share

in Jenis Blog she talked about cigarettes and how she has become addicted. She talks about the cigarettes and their companies as parasites. What I want to talk about, is how very similar our own behavior is to that of a classic parasite.

I want to start this discussion with a few basic assumptions/premises.
1. People start smoking cigarettes to get a hi, after becoming addicted that hi becomes the relief of satisfying their craving.
2. They choose to begin using this product for its hi as result of boredom or lack of something better to do. Sometimes we begin to smoke them because everyone around us is, and we want to participate in the group.
These assumptions come from experience although I have never been addicted to cigarettes.

These actions are somewhat parasitic in nature. A parasite latches itself onto a host often for survival, or to use the hosts resources to replicate itself. In this case the host is a large entity known as a corporation. People often choose a specific brand of cigarettes, they pick their host essentially, which satisfies their needs or offers the product they want. It is intentionally luring in us parasites because it can make money off us. And by the time we are addicted we have a symbiotic relationship. Parasites often find strength in numbers, just as one smoker says to the other, want to have a cigarette with me? Cause noone wants to stand in the cold alone.. Since there are laws now which keep people from smoking inside.. like a law keeps out non-human parasites due to health codes, we now shun smokers. Like a parasite would stick close to its host we often keep our pack of ciggies "VERY close to [us] at all times" (Jeni). We crave it, like a parasite that craves its nutrients. I sometimes see our generation as a drug hungry one, we have expanded the number of drugs and the ways in which they can be used. Like parasites we do anything we can get our hands on, to keep us going until the next hit or something sweeter comes along.
We find other parasites to help us obtain them. The cellphone is probably the most prominent parasite in our society, children have them now. We cling to our cellphones like we cling to our drugs because we know the phone is the easiest way to get them.

On a much broader scale. Human scavenge the Earth for its natural resources, to Mother Nature, we are the worst parasite of all because we provide nothing in return for the massive amounts of damage and waste we create. We are the AIDS to its immune system. One day we will kill our host and be forced to move on to the next. We're lesser beings to those found in the movie Independence Say, they are the more advanced parasite.