Continuing the conversation

You know, it's interesting... but in reading through the comments from yesterday's post I feel like I tapped into a vein of latent frustration on the part of many readers.    Apparently, for whatever reason, many of you have felt the need to sit quietly and simply 'take it' in the face of line-cutters and other bad behavior you/we encounter on a daily basis.

Lest anyone accuse me of being too hard on Israelis, I should point out that bad/rude public behavior is far from an exclusively Israeli trait.  In fact... in continuing down an avenue of thought prompted by some of yesterday's comments I'd like to ask your advice about something that - while certainly an ongoing cause of friction in Israeli society - is also a point of friction pretty much everywhere in the civilized world.

I'm talking about the ongoing struggle between smokers and non-smokers for protection/freedom from one other.

I should begin by letting on that I am a lifelong non-smoker with most of the knee-jerk puritanical intolerance that comes with that.  But I am also intellectually honest enough (I hope) to admit that both sides of this particular debate have been terribly unfair - often deliberately so - to the other.

Therefore before we get to the substance of what I'd like to ask you, let me place a couple of well-ground axes out where everyone can see them:

1.  Smoking is not something that only impacts the smoker.  It has both immediate, and far-reaching, consequences ranging from second hand smoke-related health issues to staggering long term health costs directly linked to entirely preventable smoking related diseases.

2.  Smoking is a perfectly legal indulgence/pleasure for those who partake, and as such should not be viewed as criminal or deviant behavior.  But like alcohol consumption, there must be clear acknowledgment of the potential consequences to both the participants and secondary/tertiary bystanders.  People who are forced to breathe in secondhand smoke in the workplace, public spaces and homes are at risk for many of the same health issues as those who have made a conscious decision to smoke.  By the same token, those who share the roads and workplace with drinkers are forced to assume many of the same dangers as those who chose to imbibe.

Having said all that, I generally trust the effectiveness of lively public debate and the resulting fair legislation to help minimize the impact that smokers and drinkers can have on those who choose not to partake.  By the same token, I think it is perfectly reasonable that pressure be exerted from the opposite direction to ensure that concern for public safety/comfort doesn't wander into the realm of puritanical zeal in such a way as to prohibit the ability of individuals to enjoy these perfectly legal pastimes.

Looking back on the past three or four decades should convince anyone who has been paying attention that a balance  - albeit imperfect - can be achieved over time.  But when viewed through the lens of only a few months or years it can be frustrating to those who feel that not enough - or too much - is being done.

The two things that conspire to make the issue of public smoking much more fractious here in Israel than in, say, America are:

1.  A larger percentage of Israelis smoke than in the US.

2.  It is much more common in Israel than in the US for legislation to be enacted without providing effective mechanisms or funding for enforcement.

These two things make the public smoking issue much more visible and contentious to those who come here from abroad... and this is, IMHO the logical jumping off point for soliciting your reasoned (and reasonable) input.

I can't tell you how many times I have been confronted in a bus station, shopping mall or restaurant with smokers puffing away within plain sight of signs proclaiming that it is forbidden to do so. 

The proprietors/management of these spaces generally feel their responsibility ends with posting the signs.  I can sort of understand this.  Fearing unnecessarily alienating customers, they leave enforcement to municipal authorities and/or police. 

However, the government, under whose authority the municipalities and police function, tends to pass anti-smoking legislation without regard to the cost of enforcement... dooming such laws to the status of well-meaning-but-unfunded (i.e. toothless) initiatives.  This tends to leave management/proprietors to police their own spaces.  While not a classic Catch-22, it does cause a frustrating bit of circular blame-storming.

The end result is that it often falls entirely to those who are bothered by public smoking to either sit quietly and take it or appeal to the smokers to abide by the law. 

Unlike line cutting and other anti-social/rude behavior, the smoking issue is nominally backed up by law... so one would think it would be easier for people to speak up.  But in my experience this is not the case.  You see, regardless of who you are or where you were raised, lodging a complaint directly to someone who is causing offense is never an easy thing to do.  Even if the recipient is responsive and immediately takes steps to abate the subject of the complaint, the complainer risks coming off as being argumentative and unnecessarily confrontational. 

On the other hand, anyone working up the nerve to complain to someone smoking in a public space is faced with the 'what if...' scenario... as in, 'what if the person simply says, "Piss off, I don't feel like stopping/moving to another area and there is nothing you can do about it"'.  Even if the response is couched in more polite terms than that, a flat refusal to comply with a request/complaint leaves the person who has complained feeling angry and impotent.

So I put it to you... without being overly shrill or strident... what is the the best working solution in a situation where the authorities abdicate their responsibilities and leave public compliance/enforcement to the public?

[I'll share my own thoughts -of which I have many - later in the thread.  I'd prefer to hear what you have to say before jumping in and potentially preempting anyone]