Last night, Josh lost it at the shop front. The local pub has closed down – one of the 37 which close nationally each week – and his mum worked there. With his accustomed diplomacy, Chunk remarked that it might keep her off the booze, whereupon Josh smacked him. Chunk has also been affected by the economic downturn; his dad has been laid off and had slapped his mother the previous weekend.
The shop front fracas was shortlived; Kyle played the diplomat, handing out fags to Josh and Chunk. Twenty minutes later, Josh returned the favour and included Chunk. Sorted. Respect.
A tiny moment in the scheme of human business but it offers a serious take on social capital. At times like these, social literacy is at a premium, because, as Chunk's mother experienced, financial hardship doesn't just hit you in the pocket. And, like it or not, for centuries and throughout the world, smoking has been a key component of social literacy.
Not any more, though; tobacco has long been removed from the portfolio of social stocks and shares, declared to be unethical on medical grounds. The social banking system may not yet be in as deep recession as its financial sister but it has been assuredly weakened at a time when its vitality is most needed.
This might therefore be a good moment to review the social value of smoking and challenge the wisdom of this exclusion from the social markets.
The social market has a varied portfolio and it helps to examine some of its other assets before focusing on tobacco.
To understand the plunge in social share capital, the pub is a good place to start. If Chunk's dad had dropped into his local after getting the bad news, it could well be that the fear and anger generated by his being laid off could have been dissipated in social communion with his mates. That's what the local was for, but its snug collegiality has been replaced by the bland impersonality of the pub chain with big screen, karaoke and alcoholic excess excited by "happy hours".
The pub is just one among many occasions where opportunities for human engagement have fallen victim to technical and material "progress".
The supermarkets have encouraged home delivery and self-service checkouts and will soon extend this to trolley content scanning which will do away altogether with the fundamental exchange which is at the core of human trading. This is reinforced by the surge in on-line facilities for goods.
Then there is the takeaway culture, whether in the form of meals or entertainment which has made similar inroads into shared experience. Libraries and gyms are introducing electronic staffing. In the workplace, the misuse of the email is already well documented for its erosion of social skills. Even public urinals are beginning to become cubiclised!
Finally, there is the cyber world of e-sociality. The jury may still be out on the impact of social networking websites on real-life skills, but the evidence is mounting. There is a thin line between reality and fantasy, in any case, but at a time of collective insecurity under the threats of terrorism, recession and environmental meltdown, the virtual world is so much more comfortable than the real one. And sites such as Second Life offer this in spades.
None of these developments are either solely responsible for the fall in the social bank rate, nor are they inherently "bad". However, they have contributed to a toxic erosion of social mores which could convert the present crisis into a drama – and a tragedy at that.
Against such a backdrop, smoking emerges as a vital social currency. Its role in the socialising process is universal and ancient. It is emphatically a social activity.
The ancient slogan "You're never alone with a Strand" did not signal the self-sufficiency of the companionship of a stick of lit tobacco, but rather that the owner of such a stick would be joined by others similarly equipped. In the UK, it has been demonised in recent years and its practioners made outlaws, banished to huddle like pariahs in doorways, shelters, street corners and shop fronts. Yet, as our shop front showed, it is a medium for mediation, and not just for making friends but for losing enemies.
Smoking remains the most accessible common currency of human sociality; it constitutes a transaction which has been timeless, the exchange of gifts. It may be bad for our physical health, but perhaps it is worth counting the cost of its absence on social wellbeing. The peace pipe does exactly what it says on the tin; we discredit it at our peril.
