'When I think what an aid tobacco is to friendship and Christian patience, I have sometimes regretted that I never began to smoke.'- Gresham Machen@jg_machen
Reading this it struck me that no-one would say this today. The world has changed. Look at old films or TV recordings and see how pervasive was tobacco, the ubiquitous smoke. In the first episode of The Crown the king's valet lights the cigarette, takes an initial puff and hands it to his majesty. The king is told he is dying of lung cancer with only one lung remaining yet his doctor does not advise him to stop smoking. Time has changed everything.
Could I think of any such dramatic change? I found one.An activity that has gone from criminality to social approval in my lifetime, an even more radical change. I illustrate this with quotes from two very respectable figures in the arts who lived before the era of so called same sex marriage.
The middle age of buggers is not to be contemplated without horror.--Virginia Woolf
Everything is controlled by the sods. The country is riddled with homosexuals who are teaching the world how to behave--a spectacle of revolting hypocrisy.--Sir Thomas Beecham
The world is indeed upside down. An actor cannot portray Churchill enjoying a cigar on the stage and an open air preacher dare not quote Leviticus.
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