Rational

Rational (pronounced rash-nl (U) or rash-uh-nl (non-U))

(1) Agreeable to reason; reasonable; sensible.

(2) Having or exercising reason, sound judgment, or good sense.

(3) Of a person or their personal characteristics, being in or characterized by full possession of one's reason; sane; lucid; healthy or balanced intellectually; exhibiting reasonableness.

(4) Endowed with the faculty of reason; capable of reasoning.

(5) Of or relating to, or constituting reasoning powers.

(6) Proceeding or derived from reason or based on reasoning.

(7) Logically sound; not self-contradictory or otherwise absurd

(8) In mathematics, capable of being expressed exactly by a ratio of two integers or (of a function) capable of being expressed exactly by a ratio of two polynomials.

(9) In chemistry, expressing the type, structure, relations, and reactions of a compound; graphic; said of formulae.

(10) In physics, expressing a physical object.

(11) In the philosophy of science, based on scientific knowledge or theory rather than practical observation.

(12) The breastplate worn by Israelite high priests (historic references only).

1350-1400: From the Old French rationel & rational, from the Middle English racional, from the Late Latin ratiōnālis (of or belonging to reason, rational, reasonable; having a ratio), the construct being ratiōn (stem of ratiō (reason; calculation)) + -ālis.  The –alis suffix was from the primitive Indo-European -li-, which later dissimilated into an early version of –āris and there may be some relationship with hel- (to grow); -ālis (neuter -āle) was the third-declension two-termination suffix and was suffixed to (1) nouns or numerals creating adjectives of relationship and (2) adjectives creating adjectives with an intensified meaning.  The suffix -ālis was added (usually, but not exclusively) to a noun or numeral to form an adjective of relationship to that noun. When suffixed to an existing adjective, the effect was to intensify the adjectival meaning, and often to narrow the semantic field.  If the root word ends in -l or -lis, -āris is generally used instead although because of parallel or subsequent evolutions, both have sometimes been applied (eg līneālis & līneāris).  The use to describe the breastplate worn by Israelite high priests was from the Old French rational, from the Medieval Latin ratiōnāle (a pontifical stole, a pallium, an ornament worn over the chasuble), neuter of the Latin rationalis (rational).  The spelling rationall is obsolete.  Rational is a noun & adjective, rationalizing is a noun & verb, rationalize & rationalized are verbs, rationalism , rationalness & rationalizer are nouns and rationally is an adverb; the noun plural is rationals.  The rarely used adjective hyperrational means literally “extremely rational” and can be used positively or neutrally but it’s applied also negatively, usually as a critique of “economic rationality”.

Rational & irrational numbers illustrated by Math Monks.

In something of a departure from the usual practice in English, “antirational”, “nonrational” & “irrational” (there are hyphenated forms of both) are not necessarily synonymous.  Antirational describes something or someone who is or acts in a way contrary to the rational while arational (often in the form arationality) is a technical term used in philosophy in the sense of “not within the domain of what can be understood or analyzed by reason; not rational, outside the competence of the rules of reason” an applied to matters of faith (religious & secular).  Nonrational (used usually in the hyphenated form) is literally simply the antonym of rational (in most senses) but now appears most often in the language of economics where it’s used of decisions made by actors (individual, collective & corporate) which are contrary to economic self-interest.  Irrational can be used as another antonym but it’s also a “loaded” adjective which carries an association with madness (now called mental illness) while in mathematics (especially the mysterious world of number theory) it’s the specific antonym of the “ration number” and means a “real number unable to be written as the ratio of two integers”, a concept dating from the 1560s.

The adjective rational emerged in the mid-1400s and was was a variant of the late fourteenth century racional (“pertaining to or springing from reason” and of persons “endowed with reason; having the power of reasoning”, from the Old French racionel and directly from the Latin rationalis (of or belonging to reason, reasonable) from ratio (genitive rationis) (reckoning, calculation, reason).  By the 1560s it was picked up in mathematics to mean “expressible in finite terms” before becoming more precisely defined.  The meaning “conformable to the precepts of practical reason” dates from the 1630s.  The adverb rationally was from the same source as ratio and ration; the sense in rational is aligned with that in the related noun reason which got deformed in French.  The noun rationality by the 1620s was used in the sense of “quality of having reason” and by mid-century that had extended to “fact of being agreeable to reason”, from the French rationalité and directly from the Late Latin rationalitas (reasonableness, rationality (the source also for the Spanish racionalidad and the Italian razionalita), from the Latin rationalis (of or belonging to reason, reasonable).  As late as the early fifteenth century racionabilite (the faculty of reason) was in Middle English, from the Latin rationabilitas.

Rational AG's iCombi Pro range: Gas or Electric.

By the 1820s, the noun rationalization was in use in the sense of “a rendering rational, act of subjection to rational tests or principles”, the specific modern sense in psychology in reference to subconscious (to justify behavior to make it seem rational or socially acceptable) adopted by the profession early in the twentieth century.  The verb rationalize (explain in a rational way, make conformable to reason) dates from the mid eighteenth century although the sense familiar in psychology (to give an explanation that conceals true motives) came into use only in the 1920s on the notion of “cause to appear reasonable or socially acceptable” although decades earlier it had been used with the intransitive sense of “think for oneself, employ one's reason as the supreme test”.  The use in psychology endured but “rationalize” also came into use in applied economics with the meaning “to reorganize an industry or other commercial concern to eliminate wasteful processes”.  That seems to have come from US use although the first recorded entry was the Oxford English Dictionary’s (OED) supplementary edition in 1927.  In this context, it became a “vogue word” of the inter-war years of both sides of the Atlantic although it fell from favour after 1945 as the vogue shifted to “integrate”, “tailor”, “streamline” and that favourite of 1970s management consultants: the “agonizing reappraisal”.  However, in the 1980s & 1990s, “rationalize” gained a new popularity in economics and (especially) the boom industry of financial journalism, presumably because the “economic rationalists” coalesced during the Reagan-Thatcher era as the dominant faction in political economy.

Many have their own favourite aspect of Sigmund Freud’s (1856-1939) theories but one concept which infuses mush of his work is the tussle in the human psyche between the rational and irrational.  Freud’s structural model consisted of the three major components: id, ego & superego, the elements interacting and conflicting to shape behavior and personality.  The id was the primitive & instinctual part containing sexual and aggressive drives; operating on the pleasure principle, it seeks seeking immediate gratification and pleasure.  Present even before birth, it’s the source of our most basic desires and in its purest processes is wholly irrational, focused on wants and not the consequences of actions.

Concept of the id, ego & superego by the Psych-Mental Health Hub.

The rational was introduced by the ego, something which developed from the id and was the rational, decision-making part of the mind which balanced the demands of the id and the constraints of reality.  As Freud noted, implicit in this interaction was that the ego repressed the id which obviously was desirable because that’s what enables a civilized society to function but the price to be paid was what he called “surplus repression”.  That was a central idea in Freud's later psychoanalytic theory, exploring the consequences of the repression of innate, instinctual drives beyond that which was necessary for the functioning of society and the individual: the rational took its pound of flesh.  Discussed in Civilization and its Discontents (1930), “primary repression” was essential to allow the individual to adapt to societal norms and function in a civilized society while “surplus repression” was the operation of these forces beyond what is required for that adaptation.  Freud identified this as a source of psychological distress and neurosis.

Lindsay Lohan’s early century lifestyle made her a popular choice as a case-study for students in Psychology 101 classes studying the interaction of the rational and irrational process in the mind.  Most undergraduates probably enjoyed writing these essays more than had they been asked to analyse Richard Nixon (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974), America’s other great exemplar of the struggle.

It was the ego which mediated between the id, the superego, and the external world, making possible realistic and socially acceptable decisions, essentially by making individuals consider the consequences of their actions.  The superego developed last and built a construct of the morality, ethical standards & values internalized from parents, the education system, society and cultural norms; operating on the “morality principle”, the superego one of the “nurture” parts of the “nature vs nurture” equation which would for decades be such an important part of research in psychology.

Rationale

Rationale (pronounced rash-uh-nal)

(1) The fundamental reason or reasons serving to account for something.

(2) A statement of reasons.

(3) A reasoned exposition of principles, especially one defining the fundamental reasons for a course of action or belief; a justification for action.

(4) A liturgical vestment worn by some Christian bishops of various denominations (now rare), the origin of which is the breastplate worn by Israelite high priests (a translation of λογεῖον (logeîon) or λόγιον (logion) (oracle) in the Septuagint version of Exodus 28)).  The French spelling (rational) of the Latin ratiōnāle was used in Biblical translations.

(5) In engineering, a design rationale is the explicit documentation of the reasons behind decisions made when designing a system; it was once used of what now would be described as a set of parameters.

1650-1660: From the Late Latin ratiōnāle (exposition of principles), nominative singular neuter of ratiōnālis (rational, of reason).  After some early inventiveness, the modern sense "fundamental reason, the rational basis or motive of anything" became standardised during the (1680s).  In the nature of such things, many rationales are constructed ex post facto.  Rationale is a noun; the noun plural is rationales or rationalia.

Prince Metternich & Dr Rudd: illustrating rationale & rational

Portrait of Prince Metternich (1822), miniature on card by Friedrich Lieder (1780-1859).

Rationale and rational are sometimes confused.  A rationale is a process variously of explanation, reason or justification of something that need not be at all rational (although many fashioned ex post facto are re-formulated thus).  To be rational, something must make sense and be capable of being understood by the orthodox, accepted methods of the time.  That something may subsequently be shown to be irrational does not mean it did not at some time appear rational; one can construct a rationale for even something irrational.  To construct a post-Napoleonic Europe, Prince Metternich (Prince Klemens of Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein (1773–1859); foreign minister of the Austrian Empire 1809-1848 & chancellor 1821-1848) built a rationale for the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) that was well understood.  It was vision of a Europe, divided between the great powers, in which was maintained a perpetual balance of power which would ensure peace.  That in the two centuries since, the Congress has attached much criticism, largely for imposing a stultifying air of reaction on the continent, does not render the structure irrational nor detract from Metternich’s rationale.  Some historians have come to regard the congress more fondly and while it’s not true the consequence was a century of peace in Europe, it created a framework which meant a good number of decades in that time were notably less blood-soaked than what came before and certainly what followed.

Dr Rudd at the ceremony to be conferred DPhil, University of Oxford, September, 2022.

By 2009, Kevin Rudd ((b 1957); Prime Minister of Australia 2007-2010 & June-September 2013), having realised being prime-minister was a squandering of intellectual talent, embarked on a re-design of relationships in the Asia-Pacific, structured in a way to suit what was self-evidently obvious: he should assume regional leadership.  These things do happen when folk get carried away.  Not discouraged by the restrained enthusiasm for his good idea, Mr Rudd penned one of his wordy rationales which, to him, must have sounded rational but less impressed was just about everybody else in the region including his own cabinet and it’s difficult to recall any hint of interest from other countries.  Mr Rudd quibbled a bit, claiming his use of the word community was just diplomatic shorthand and he wasn’t suggesting anything like what the EU ever was or had become but just better way of discussing problems.  Anyway, it for a while gave him a chance to use phrases like “ongoing and continuing discussions” and “regional and sub-regional architecture” so there was that.  By 2010 the idea had been allowed quietly to die and he had more pressing problems.

Attaining the premiership was Rudd’s mistake.  Had he never achieved to position he’d probably be spoken of as “the best prime-minister Australia never had” but instead he’s among those (and of late there have been a few) remembered as the Roman historian Tacitus (circa 56–circa 120) in the first volume of his Histories (circa 100) wrote of Galba (3 BC–AD 69; Roman Emperor 68-69): "...omnium consensu capax imperii nisi imperasset" (everyone would have agreed he was qualified for governing if he had not held the office).  His background was as a senior public servant who provided advice to others so they could make decisions and he enjoyed a solid career which was clearly well-suited to his skills.  Unfortunately, when occupying the highest political office in the land, he proved indecisive and too often inclined to refer to committees matters which he should have insisted came to cabinet with the necessary documents.  His other character flaw was he seemed unable to understand there was a difference between “leadership” and “command”, unable to realise there was a difference between the structured hierarchy of the public service and the swirling clatter of politics.  His career in The Lodge (the prime-minister’s official residence in Canberra) can be recalled as the Italian historian and politician Francesco Guicciardini (1483–1540) noted of Pope Clement VII (1478–1534; pope 1523-1534): “…knowledgeable and effective as a  subordinate, he fell victim when in charged to timidity, perplexity and habitual irresolution.”  With that, the Italian writer Piero Vettori (1499–1585) concurred, writing: “From a great and renowned cardinal, he was transformed into a little and despised pope”, a sentiment familiar in the phrase repeated in militaries around the world (outstanding major; average colonel; lousy general) to describe that truism in organizational behaviour: “Everyone gets promoted to their own level of incompetence”.

That aphorism was from The Peter Principle (1970), written by Raymond Hull (1919–1985) and based on the research of Laurence Peter (1919–1990), the idea being someone who proves successful in one role will be promoted and if competent there, they will be promoted again.  However, should they fail, within the hierarchy, that is the point of their incompetence, the implication being that the tendency is, as time passes, more and more positions within a corporation will be filled by the incompetent.  The exceptions of course are (1) those competent souls who for whatever reason decline promotion and (2) the habitually successful who will in theory continue to be promoted until they reach the top and, if they prove competent there, this results in the paradox of the typical corporation being run by someone competent but staffed substantially by the incompetent.  In politics, reaching the top means becoming prime-minister, president or some similar office and as Winston Churchill (1875-1965; UK prime-minister 1940-1945 & 1951-1955) described it: "...if he trips he must be sustained. If he makes mistakes they must be covered. If he sleeps he must not wantonly be disturbed. If he is no good he must be poleaxed.  In one of the more amusing recent episodes in politics, the Australian Labor Party (ALP) decided Dr Rudd had been promoted to the relevant point and poleaxed him, a back-stabbing which remains one of the best organized and executed seen in years.  Subsequently, the party concluded his replacement was even more of a dud and restored Dr Rudd to the job, a second coming which lasted but a few months but that was long enough for him to revenge himself upon the hatchet men responsible for his downfall so there was that.       

Still, after his political career (which can be thought a success because he did did reach the top of the “greasy pole” and the delivered the ALP a handsome election victory although their gratitude was short-lived (a general tendency in democracies noted (sometimes gleefully) by many political scientists)) he has been busy, even if the secretary-generalship of the United Nations (UN) (an office which is an irresistible lure for a certain type) proved elusive.  Recently he became Dr Rudd, awarded Doctorate of Philosophy (DPhil) by the University of Oxford.  His 420 page thesis, written over four years, explores the world view of Xi Jinping (b 1953; general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) since 2013) and the relationship of his ideology to both the direction taken by the CCP and the links with the thoughts (and their consequences) of Chairman Mao (Mao Zedong 1893–1976; chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) 1949-1976).

Dr Rudd says his thesis argues “…there has been a significant change in China’s ideological worldview under Xi Jinping compared with previous ideological orthodoxies under Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao [and summarises] Xi’s worldview as a new form of ‘Marxist-Leninist Nationalism’”.  Dr Rudd says he preferred “Marxist Nationalism” because “the term contains within it three core propositions”: (1) “Xi’s Leninism has taken both the party and Chinese politics in general to the left” (and he defines “left” for these purposes as “…the reassertion of the power of the party over all public policy as well as elevating the position of the individual leader against the rest of collective leadership”), (2) “Xi’s notion of Marxism has similarly taken the centre of gravity of Chinese economic thought to the left” ("left" in this aspect defined as “…a new priority for party-state intervention in the economy, state-owned enterprises over the private sector and a new ideology of greater income equality”) and (3) “Xi has also taken Chinese nationalism to the right (“right” here meaning “a new assertion of Chinese national power as reflected in a new array of nationalist ‘banner terms’ that are now used in the party’s wider ideological discourse.”)  Dr Rudd views these three forces as “…part of a wider reification of the overall role of ideology under Xi Jinping. This has been seen in the fresh application of Marxist Leninist concepts of dialectical materialism, historical materialism, the primary stage of socialism, contradiction and struggle across the range of China’s current domestic and international challenges. The role of nationalism has also been enhanced within Xi’s new ideological framework. This hybrid form of Marxist Nationalist ideology is also being increasingly codified within the unfolding canon of Xi Jinping thought.” 

“Finally, the thesis argues there is a high degree of correlation between these ideological changes on the one hand and changes in the real world of Chinese politics, economic policy and a more assertive foreign policy on the other - including a different approach to Chinese multilateral policy as observed by diplomatic practitioners at the UN in New York.  The thesis concludes these changes in Xi Jinping’s ideological worldview and its impact on Chinese politics and public policy is best explained by a theoretical framework that integrates Authoritarian Resilience Theory, the realist and constructivist insights of the English School of International Relations Theory, and Foreign Policy Analysis.”  Clearly, Dr Rudd thinks the CCP has come a long way since comrade Stalin (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953) casually dismissed Maoist theory as “ideologically primitive”.

Since March 2023, Dr Rudd has served as Australian Ambassador to the United States, the announcement of the appointment attracting some speculation there may be a secret protocol to the contract, providing for him to report to the prime-minister rather than the foreign minister.  It was mischievous speculation and there has been little but praise for the solid work he has been doing in the Washington embassy.  Dr Rudd’s role attracted headlines in March 2022 when a interview with Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021) was broadcast in which the former president was acquainted (apparently for the first time) with some uncomplimentary assessments Dr Rudd had made of him including describing him “the most destructive president in history” and “a traitor to the West”.

Having doubtless heard and ignored worse over the years, Mr Trump seemed little concerned but did respond in his usual style, observing he didn’t know much about Dr Rudd except he’d heard he was “a little bit nasty” and “not the brightest bulb”, adding “he’d not be there long” if hostile to a second Trump presidency.  Trumpologists analysing these thoughts suggested the mildness of the reaction indicated the matter was unlikely to be pursued were he to return to the Oval Office, noting his habit of tending to ignore or forget about anything except actual threats to his immediate self-interest.  After taking office in 2017, when asked if he would pursue the legal action he’d during the campaign threatened against Bill (b 1946; US president 1993-2001) & crooked Hillary Clinton (b 1947; US secretary of state 2009-2013) (mostly on the basis of crooked Hillary’s crooked crookedness), he quickly brushed it off saying: “No, they’re good people” and moving on.  It’s thought Dr Rudd won't end up in the diplomatic deep-freeze, the most severe version of which is for a host nation to declare a diplomat "persona non grata" (the construct being the Latin persōna (person) + nōn (not) + grāta (from grātus (acceptable)), the consequence of which is an expulsion from the territory and the worst fate he may suffer is not receiving an invitation to a round of golf (something unlikely much to upset him).  Others however should be worried, in a second Trump White House, there will be vengeance.

Like "diplomatic toothache" and "null & void", the phrase "persona non gratia" has become part of general language, the utility being in few words describing what would otherwise take many more.  Impressionistically, it would seem "troubled starlets" are more than most declared "persona non gratia".

Endurance

Endurance (pronounced en-doo r-uhns or en-dyoo r-uhns)

(1) The fact or power of enduring or bearing pain, hardships, etc.

(2) The ability or strength to continue or last, especially despite fatigue, stress, or other adverse conditions; stamina.

(3) Lasting quality; duration.

(4) Something endured, as a hardship; trial.

1485-1495: From the Middle English enduren from the Old French endurer, from the Classical Latin indūrō (to make hard).  Enduren displaced the pre-900 Old English drēogan (congnate with the Gothic driugan (to serve in arms) which survives dialectally as dree (tedious; dreary)).  The meaning "ability to endure suffering" was first noted in the 1660s. The older forms, enduraunce, indurance, induraunce are all long obsolete.  Construct was endure + ance; the suffix –ance (a process or action) added to the stem of verbs to form a noun indicating a state or condition, such as result or capacity, associated with the verb, this especially prevalent with words borrowed from French.  Many words ending in ance were formed in French by alteration of a noun or adjective ending in ant; ance was derived from the Latin anita and enita.

Endurance Racing

There’s no precise definition of endurance racing, it's just a form of competition of greater duration of length than most.  It’s bounced around over the years but events now regarded as endurance races tend to be over a distance of 625 miles (1000 km) or twelve or twenty-four hours long.  Long races existed from the early days of motorsport, the first twenty-four hour event being on an oval circuit at Dayton, Ohio in 1905, followed soon by the opening event at the purpose-built Brooklands circuit in 1907.  One of the epic races was the Targa Florio, first run in 1906.  Held originally on public roads in the mountains of Sicily near the capital Palermo, it was for decades the oldest event for sports cars and a round of the World Sportscar Championship between 1955-1973.  The first few races were a lap of the whole island but as the volume of traffic and competitors increased, it became too disruptive and the track length was reduced to the 72 kilometre (45 mile) Circuito Piccolo delle Madonie, each Targa Florio run over eleven laps.  Safety concerns and the oil crisis conspired to remove it from the world championship after 1973 and it was finally cancelled in 1977.  A much toned-down event is now run annually as a round of the Italian Rally Championship.

Further north, the thousand-mile Mille Miglia, also run on public roads, was first staged in 1927 and although soon one of the classic events on the calendar, it's the 1955 race to which a particular aura still attaches.  Won by Stirling Moss (1929-2020) and  Denis Jenkinson (1920-1996), they used a Mercedes 300SLR, a car which technically complied with the sports car regulations but was actually the factory's formula one machine (W196) with a bigger engine and a streamlined body with seats for two.  It wasn't exactly a "grand prix car with headlights" as some claimed but wasn't that far off.  Officially the W196S (Sports) in the factory register, for marketing purposes it was dubbed (add badged) as the 300SLR to add lustre to the 300SL Gullwing coupé then on sale.

Mercedes-Benz W196S (300SLR), Mille Miglia, 1955.

The race was completed in 10 hours, 7 minutes and 48 seconds, a average speed of 157.650 km/h (97.96 mph) (the course was never exactly 1000 miles and that year was 1,597 km (992 miles) and at times, the 300SLR touched almost 305 km/h (190mph) which enabled Moss to cover the last 340 km (211 miles) at an average speed of 265.7 km/h (165.1) mph.  The record set in 1955 will stand for all time because the Italian government banned the Mille Miglia after two fatal crashes during the 1957 event, one of which killed nine spectators and a cursory glace at the photographs showing crowds clustered sometimes literally inches from the speeding cars might suggest it's surprising not more died.  Today, the name of the Mille Miglia endures as a semi-competitive tour for historic racing cars which, run since 1977.  By contrast, events run on closed courses have survived, the most famous of which is the 24 Heures du Mans (the Le Mans 24 Hour) and well-known 1000 km, 12 & 24 hour races have been run at Sebring, Laguna Seca, Daytona, Bathurst, the Nürburgring and Spa Francorchamps.

Endurance racing: Porsche 917Ks sideways in the wet; Vic Elford (1935-2022, right #11) and Pedro Rodriguez (1940-1971, left #10), BOAC 1000km, Brands Hatch, April 1970.  The race was the third round of the 1970 World Sports Car Championship.  Chris Amon (1943–2016) put a Ferrari 512S on pole but the 1000 was won (by 5 laps) by Pedro Rodríguez & Leo "Leksa" Kinnunen (1943–2017) in a Porsche 917K entered by John Wyer (1909–1989).  Amon was impressed by the speed maintained by Rodríguez in atrociously wet conditions (although much improved from the lethally unstable version seen a year earlier, even by 1970 the 917 could be difficult to handle even on a dry surface) and is said to have remarked to his pit crew: "Can somebody tell Pedro it's raining?"

Some endurance required: In 2023, the Dowse Art Museum in Wellington, New Zealand, staged the exhibition exploring the 2014 installation at Fort Delta, Melbourne in July 2014 in which New Zealand based artist Claire Harris (b 1982) watched Ms Lohan's entire filmography back to back in a live performance art work over 28 hours.  The issues discussed included “how” and “why” and there were practical tips on developing the stamina required for such feats of endurance.  The companion 34 page illustrated book Happy birthday Lindsay Lohan, 2011-2014 is available on request from the National Library of New Zealand.  The pages are unnumbered, the rational for which is not disclosed.

As a general principle, an "endurance event" tends to be a longer version of something so it’s thus a relative as well as an absolute term.  In sport, something like the Marathon, run over 42 kilometres (26 miles) is the endurance event of running where as the shorter contests are sprints (such as the 100 or 200 meters) or “distance” races (such as the 5,000 or 10,000 metres).  However, were the Marathon not to exist, then the 10,000 would be the “endurance” event of the Olympic Games, the tag attaching to whatever is the longest form.  In other fields, “endurance” can be more nuanced because what some find an “act of endurance” to sit through, others relish and long for more.  Richard Wagner’s (1813–1883)'s Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung, 1876 (usually referred to as “The Ring Cycle”)) is an opera of epic length in cycle consisting of four separate pieces, each of the composer regarded as “an opera”:

Das Rheingold: (The Rhinegold; some 2½ hours with no intermission)
Die Walküre: (The Valkyrie; some 4½-5½ hours with intermissions)
Siegfried: (some 5-5½ hours with intermissions)
Götterdämmerung: (Twilight of the Gods; some 5-6 hours with intermissions)

So, a performance of the Ring Cycle absorbs between 15-17 hours and is thus usually spread over several days, some productions staging the event across a month, each performance (usually three or four) held on a weekend.  Grand Opera really is the West’s greatest artistic achievement and among the aficionados, the Wagnerian devotees are the most dedicated and passionate, some travelling the world to compare and contrast different productions of the Ring.  For them it’s not usually a test of endurance (although a production of which they don’t approve will be a long 17 hours) because they relish every moment but for others it’s probably unthinkable.  Although it’s long been attributed to him, the US humorist Mark Twain (1835-1910) may never have said: “Wagner’s music isn’t as bad as it sounds”, the back-handed compliment reflects the view of the majority, brought up on shorter, more accessible forms of entertainment.  For them, one hour of Wagner would be an endurance test.

The three later individual pieces of The Ring are themselves epic-length operas and Wagner wrote a number in this vein including Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Master-Singers of Nuremberg, 1868; 5-6 hours), Parsifal (1882; 4-5 hours), Lohengrin (1850; 4 hours), Tannhäuser (1845; 4 hours) and the incomparable Tristan und Isolde (1965; 4-5 hours).  What came to define “epic length” in Opera was: (1) the typical length of other works and (2) the powers of endurance of those on stage, in the orchestra pit or in the audience.  Other composers did tend to write shorter operas although Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791–1864), Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901), Richard Strauss (1864–1949), Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868) and Hector Berlioz (1803–1869) all produced works running over four hours and it was not unusual for there to be two or even three intermissions.  For profligacy with time however, none match Wagner although some modern composers have written very long operas although their length seems other to be their only memorable feature.

Epics: On vinyl, tracks did lengthen and if the physical limits of vinyl were exceeded, the piece could be spread over more than one disk.  Iron Butterfly’s In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (1968, left) was 17:05 in length, Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick (1972, centre) was 43:46 (over two disks) while Rush’s 2112 (1976, right) was 20:33.

Cast adrift from the moorings of endurance by internet streaming making available infinite playing time, “songs” in the twenty-first century can last literally hours and an illustrative example is The Rise and Fall of Bossanova by PC III (Michael J Bostwick) which weighs in at a Wagarian 13 hours, 23 minutes, and 32 seconds.  It seems between 2016-2020 to have held the Guinness World Record as the longest song officially released although whether this should be thought a proud boast or admission of guilt will be up to those who listen.  Ominously, one of the implications of AI (artificial intelligence) is that in theory, someone could release a song which, without hesitation, deviation or repetition, goes on forever.

Andy Warhol's Empire is occasionally screened but always on the basis that viewers may "come and go" at any point in its eight hour run-time.

In pop music, the “epic length piece” was shorter by virtue of technological determinism.  Modern pop music (as the term is now understood) began in the 1950s and the standard form of distribution by the 1960s was the LP (long-playing) vinyl album, first released in 1948.  Because the technology of the time limited the duration of music which could fit on the side of a LP disk to about 27 minutes, that became the upper limit for a single song and at that length, it could be called “epic length” or just “an epic”.  Some bands and individuals did produce “epics” with varied results and some were probably better enjoyed (or endured) with drugs.  Not discouraged by the limitations of vinyl, others noted the possibilities offered by double (2 disks) or even triple (3 disks) albums and penned “rock operas”, the need to change disks a convenient operatic touch in that it provided a intermission.  Andy Warhol (1928–1987) took the idea of the endurance test to celluloid, in 1965 releasing Empire, a silent film shot in black & white showing New York’s Empire State Building at night (form a single aspect).  Running for some eight hours and designed to be viewed in slow-motion, it received critical praise from the usual suspects and little interest among even those who frequented art-house cinemas.  Warhol issued as statement saying the purpose was “to see time go by” and it can’t be denied he succeeded, perhaps even more convincingly than his earlier five hour epic Sleep (1964) which was an edited collection of takes of a man sleeping.  Similar scenes may have been found among those who found watching Empire beyond their powers of endurance.

Teleology

Teleology (pronounced tel-ee-ol-uh-jee or tee-lee-ol-uh-jee)

(1) In philosophy, the study of final causes; the doctrine that final causes exist; the belief that certain phenomena are best explained in terms of purpose rather than cause (a moral theory that maintains that the rightness or wrongness of actions solely depends on their consequences is called a teleological theory).

(2) The study of the evidences of design or purpose in nature; such design or purpose; in the cult of intelligent design, the doctrine that there is evidence of purpose or design in the universe, and especially that this provides proof of the existence of a Designer

(3) The belief that purpose and design are a part of or are apparent in nature.

(4) In the cult of vitalism, the doctrine that phenomena are guided not only by mechanical forces but that they also move toward certain goals of self-realization.

(5) In biology, the belief that natural phenomena have a predetermined purpose and are not determined by mechanical laws

1728: From the New Latin teleologia a construct of the Ancient Greek τέλος (télos) (purpose; end, goal, result) genitive τέλεος (téleos) (end; entire, perfect, complete) + λόγος (lógos) (word, speech, discourse).  Teleology is a noun, teleological & teleologic are adjectives, teleologism & teleologist are nouns and teleologically is an adverb.; the noun plural is teleologies.

Christian von Wolff (circa 1740), mezzotint by Johann Jacob Haid (1704-1767).

Although teleology concepts had been discussed in the West (and likely too elsewhere) since at least antiquity, the word teleology appears first in Philosophia rationalis, sive logica (Rational philosophy or logic), a work published in 1728 by German philosopher Baron Christian von Wolff (1679-1754), an author whose writings cover an extraordinary range in formal philosophy, metaphysics, ethics and mathematics.  He used the word to mean something like "the study of stuff in terms of purpose and final cause" and were it not for the way in which Immanuel Kant’s (1724-1804) work has tended to be the intellectual steamroller which has flattened the history of German Enlightenment rationality, he’d probably now be better remembered beyond the profession.

Teleological Ethical Theories

Ethical Egoism posits that an action is good if it produces or is likely to produce results that maximize the person’s self-interest as defined by him, even at the expense of others.  It is based on the notion that it is always moral to promote one’s own good, but at times avoiding the personal interest could be a moral action too. This makes the ethical egoism different from the psychological egoism which holds that people are self-centred and self-motivated and perform actions only with the intention to maximize their personal interest without helping others, thereby denying the reality of true altruism.  Utilitarianism theory holds that an action is good if it results in maximum satisfaction for a large number of people who are likely to get affected by the action.  Eudaimonism is a teleological theory which holds an action is good if it results in the fulfilment of goals along with the welfare of the human beings.  In other words, the actions are said to be fruitful if it promotes or tends to promote the fulfilment of goals constitutive of human nature and its happiness.

Lindsay Lohan and her layer in court, Los Angeles, December 2011.

At the first of the Nuremberg trials, convened to try two-dozen odd  of the senior surviving Nazis, one of the criticisms of the conceptual model adopted by the US prosecution team under Justice Robert Jackson (1892–1954; US Supreme Court Justice 1941-1954; Chief US Prosecutor at the Nuremberg (IMT) trials of Nazi war criminals 1945-1946) was that it was teleological: "the final crimes being implicit in the very origins of the regime".  His approach was of benefit to historians and added to the drama (and sometimes the tedium) of the event but was viewed by the British team, all highly experienced trial lawyers, as a needless diversion from the core business of simply winning the cases.

As a concept in philosophy, teleology can be applied practically or in the abstract to the study of purpose or design in natural phenomena.  Because the idea of teleology is there is (or can be) some inherent purpose or goal in the development and existence of things and events, it implies they are (at least sometimes) directed toward realizing that purpose.  As a tool of philosophers it can be helpful because usually it's contrasted with a mechanistic world view in which everything in the universe exists (or is perceived) as a series of cause-and-effect interactions with no inherent purpose.  Teleology is thus ultimately one extreme of a spectrum onto which observations and theories can be mapped, shifting around as need be.  Well and good, but teleological arguments do seem to exert a powerful attraction on those with some point to make, notably among those who like to assert the existence of a purposeful creator or designer of the universe and these people are inclined to conflate elegance of argument with proof.  Ultimately, the application of teleology can provide a framework of arguments for conclusions which, however audacious and compelling, remain wholly speculative and there is the suspicion that the internal logic which a teleological map can lend does lead some to be convinced of what are, just arguments.  Advances in knowledge have in some fields have diminished the appeal.  There was a time when in the biological sciences, teleology was associated with the notion vitalism which held that living organisms possess a purpose or life force guiding their development and their role on the planet (and presumably the universe).  More recently however, the functionality and complexity of life has come to be understood through evolutionary processes, genetics, and natural selection, there being neither the need nor any apparent evidence for a predetermined purpose.

Pareidolia

Pareidolia (pronounced pair-ahy-doh-lee-uh or pair-uh-doh-lee-uh)

In psychiatry and psychology, the tendency to interpret a vague stimulus as something known to the observer, such as seeing shapes in clouds, or hearing hidden messages in music; the perception of meaning in a shape which exists by mere coincidence.

1867 (in English): From the German Pareidolie, the construct being the Ancient Greek παρα- (para-) (alongside, concurrent) + εἴδωλον (eídōlon) (image) + -ία (-ía).  The -ia suffix was from the Latin -ia and the Ancient Greek -ία (-ía) & -εια (-eia), used to form abstract nouns of feminine gender.  It was applied to the names of countries, diseases, species etc and, occasionally, collections of stuff.  In English, the word was re-introduced by UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) debunker Steven Goldstein in 22 June 1994 edition of Skeptical Inquirer magazine, a publication devoted to rational, evidence-based explanations of the para-normal, magic, flying saucers and the many crackpot notions spread by new-agers, spiritualists, conspiracy theorists and other such folk.  Pareidolia is a noun and paradolic is an adjective; the noun plural is pareidolias.  There are circumstances in which the adjectives paradolish & paradolesque might be useful but neither exists.

The German word Pareidolie was in 1866 used by German psychiatrist Dr Karl Ludwig Kahlbaum (1828–1899) in his academic paper Die Sinnesdelierien (On Delusion of the Senses and in 1867, upon re-publication in volume 13 of The Journal of Mental Science, it was translated into English as “pareidolia” and noted as synonymous with the terms “...changing hallucination, partial hallucination, and perception of secondary images.”  The use of “pareidolia” is nuanced because any object (whether constructed or natural phenomenon) which even vaguely resembles something or someone can be pareidolic but the condition of pareidolia exists only when an individual attaches some meaning to the appearance or sound.  The general term is apophenia (the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things), coined in 1958 by German neurologist and psychiatrist (and one-time Nazi) Dr Klaus Conrad (1905-1961) as Apophänie, from the Ancient Greek verb ἀποφαίνω (apophaínō), the construct being ἀπο- (apo-) and φαίνω (phaínō) (appear).  Herr Dr Conrad’s paper was on the topic of early-stage schizophrenia and he defined Apophänie as the “…unmotivated seeing of connections [accompanied by] a specific feeling of abnormal meaningfulness.”  In this, he distinguished between Apophänie as the early stages of delusional (and self-referential) over-interpretation of actual sensory perceptions, as opposed to hallucinations which were wholly illusory.

Pareidolia is a form of apophenia where the mind will attempt to find connections in random events, thoughts or patterns where none actually exist.  Pareidolia concentrates the visual and audio aspects of the brain in constructing a perception from a vague stimulus.  Clinically, there are two forms of pareidolia: (1) the “mechanistic”, where man-made objects, by mere coincidence have a resemblance to something else and (2) the “matrixed”, where natural phenomenon such as rock formations, clouds or the surfaces of planets include shapes which can be interpreted as something human, animal or supernatural and instead of being regarded as coincidental and amusing, are treated as having some inherent meaning or being evidence of some theory otherwise unsupported by any evidence.

The vast majority of pareidolias reported resemble the human face.  It’s believed that early in human evolution, the visual system developed specialized neural mechanisms which exist rapidly to detect faces and this “broad tuning” for facial features is thought to underlie the illusory perception of faces in inanimate objects (the phenomenon classified as “face pareidolia”).  There were all sorts of reasons why evolution operated in this way (family and societal relationships, recognition of threats by other creatures with a vaguely similar facial structure) and recent research suggests the mechanisms underlying face processing (certainly during the earliest phase of visual encoding) may treat objects that resemble faces as real faces, prioritizing their detection (this phase operating as something of a “clearing house”; the “positives” further processed, the “negatives” discarded.  What is of interest in psychology is that face pareidolia has been more frequently reported amongst individuals prone to hallucinations.

That the phenomenon of face pareidolia manifests with such frequency as the identification of the human face in various structures prompted some to ponder the evidence from behavioral studies of diminished orientation towards faces as well as the presence of face perception impairments in autism spectrum disorder (ASD); the research in this aspect of the condition has been criticized but the design of the experimental approach was challenging, interest was taken in the possibility of a relationship between the two.  In ASD research, face-like object stimuli which had been shown to evoke pareidolia in TD (typically developing according defined criteria in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5, 2013)) individuals were used to test the effect of a global face-like configuration on orientation and perceptual processes in young children with ASD and age-matched TD controls.  That had demonstrated TD children were more likely to look first towards upright face-like objects than children with ASD, suggesting a global face-like configuration elicit a stronger orientation bias in TD children as compared to children with ASD.  However, once focused on the stimuli, both groups spent more time exploring the upright face-like object, suggesting both perceived it as a face.  The conclusion was the result was in agreement with earlier work in the field of abnormal social orienting in ASD.  The conclusion was something like the usual “more research required”.

Detecting faces in non-face stimuli may have a strong adaptive value given that from an evolutionary point of view, the cost of erroneously detecting a face in non-face stimuli might be less than failing to detect another’s face in the environment.  Pareidolia may thus be just another spectrum condition in that the perception of pareidolic faces or other shapes in a variety of surfaces or spaces may vary little between people, the difference being more the individual’s reaction and the reporting of the event(s).

Sometimes a cloud is just a cloud (left) but when Lindsay Lohan wanted something to encapsulate the spirit of her Instagram post requesting privacy to “solve personal matters” after a tiff with her then with fiancé, she choose a pareidolic cloud in the shape of a “heart” (complete with silver lining, centre).  Before their tiff, Donald Trump's (b 1946; US president 2017-2021) fixer and personal counsel Michael Cohen (b 1966) would receive messages (right) from God in the shape of clouds, assuring him Mr Trump was the Almighty's choice as the "people's messenger".

Tobacco

Tobacco (pronounced tuh-bak-oh)

(1) Any of several plants belonging to the genus Nicotiana (of the nightshade family), especially one of those species, as N. tabacum, whose leaves are prepared for smoking or chewing or as snuff.

(2) Any of numerous solanaceous plants of the genus Nicotiana, having mildly narcotic properties, tapering hairy leaves, and tubular or funnel-shaped fragrant flowers. The species N. tabacum is cultivated as the chief source of commercial tobacco

(3) Any of various similar plants of other genera.

(4) The leaves of certain of these plants, dried and prepared, as used in cigarettes, cigars & pipes, as snuff and for chewing.

(5) Any product or products made from such leaves.

(6) To indulge in tobacco; to smoke.

(7) To treat with tobacco.

(8) A range of colors in the brown spectrum, tending to the darker.

1525–1535 (attested since 1588): From the Spanish tabaco of uncertain origin.  It was either from the Arabic طُبَّاق‎ (ṭubbāq) (Dittrichia viscosa) or from one or more Caribbean languages (including Galibi Carib, Arawak or Taíno) from a word meaning “roll of tobacco leaves” or “pipe for smoking tobacco” (there are contemporary reports citing both and scholars tend now to prefer the former), the best known of which was tabago (tube for inhaling smoke or powdered intoxicating plants).  Taino is thought by linguistic anthropologists to be the most likely source.  That the name of the inhaling implement was applied to the leaves was explained by the Spanish assuming it was the name of the plant.  The West Indian (Caribbean) island of Tobago was said to have been named in 1498 by Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) after the tambaku (pipe), a reference to the native custom of smoking dried tobacco leaves.  Derived forms include smokeless tobacco, tobaccoless & anti-tobacco and there are a wealth of slang terms for tobacco and its products (including the tax-evading illicit varieties) including occabot (the backward spelling), baccy, backy, chop chop, durrie, smoke, fag, gasper, ciggy, coffin nail, cancer stick, darb, dart, death stick, bine & stogie.  The spelling tabacco is obsolete.  Tobacco is a noun & verb, tobaccoing & tobaccoed are verbs; the noun plural is tobaccos or tobaccoes.

One difficulty public health authorities had in trying to reduce the use of tobacco was that images of smoking undeniably could be sexy: Lindsay Lohan demonstrates.

One attempt at social engineering began in earnest in the 1980s: Pressure was applied on film & television studios, advertisers and publishers to stop depicting smoking as something “attractive, sexy and cool” but because the creative community had over decades honed techniques to make even the lighting of a cigarette exactly that, success was limited.  What forever changed the environment in the US was when, in 1998, 52 state and territory attorneys general signed the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) with the nation’s four largest tobacco companies to settle what were by then dozens of lawsuits brought to recover billions of dollars in health care costs associated with treating smoking-related illnesses and eventually some four-dozen tobacco companies settled under the MSA.  Although Florida, Minnesota, Mississippi and Texas are not signatories to the MSA, they all have individual settlements pre-dating the MSA.  What the framers of the MSA worked out was it was better to be realists and, in a sense. “write-off” those adults already addicted and focus on youth by (1) reducing the take-up rate (ie “the first cigarette) and (2) induce them to quit (ie “the next cigarette”).  The most obvious tactic in this was the traditional brute-force approach of increasing the cost of cigarettes by imposing payment obligations on the tobacco companies party to the MSA but more subtle measures also restricted tobacco advertising, marketing, and promotions, including:

(1) Prohibiting tobacco companies from taking any action to target youth in the advertising, promotion or marketing of tobacco products.

(2) Banning the use of cartoons in advertising, promotions, packaging, or labeling of tobacco products.

(3) Prohibiting tobacco companies from distributing merchandise bearing the brand name of tobacco products.

(4) Banning payments to promote tobacco products in media, such as movies, televisions shows, theatre, music and video games.

(5) Prohibiting tobacco brand name sponsorship of events with a significant youth audience (or team sports).

(6) Eliminating tobacco company practices which obscure the health risks associated with the use of tobacco (the history of which is extraordinary).

(7) Providing funds for the settling states that states may choose to use to fund smoking prevention programs.

(8) Establishing and funding the Truth Initiative, an organization “dedicated to achieving a culture where all youth and young adults reject tobacco.”

The National Association of Attorneys-General (NAAG) also established a Centre for Tobacco and Public Health (CTPH) which works with the settling states of the MSA to preserve and enforce the MSA’s monetary and public-health mandates, including:

(1) Representing, advising, and supporting the settling states in MSA-related legal matters, including litigation and arbitrations.

(2) Representing the settling states in bankruptcy cases filed by tobacco manufacturers.

(3) Representing the settling states before the MSA’s independent auditor and escrow agent to ensure that annual MSA payments are properly calculated and disbursed to the states.

(4) Monitoring tobacco companies’ compliance with the MSA’s payment and public health provisions.

(5) Communicating as the settling states’ collective counsel to tobacco companies, federal tobacco regulators and other third parties about the MSA and other tobacco regulatory matters.

A quarter-century on, the operation of the MSA continues to have a profound effect on smoking, particularly among youth.  Between 1998-2019, US cigarette consumption dropped by more than 50% and during that time, regular smoking by high school students dropped from its near peak of 36.4% in 1997 to a low 6.0% in 2019.  Under the terms of the MSA, tobacco manufacturers are obligated to make, in perpetuity, annual payments to the settling states as long as cigarettes are sold in the US by companies which have settled with the States.  The earlier social engineering initiatives were also rolled into the MSA and as well as the nudging of Hollywood, the programmes were cognizant of the changing media ecosystem and as well as movie studios, independent production houses, streaming services and social media platforms were prevailed upon to curb the frequency with which tobacco imagery appeared.

Billboard “welcoming” visitors to Zion, Illinois, 1919.

Eighty years before the attorneys-general secured the MSA, at least one local government knew smoking was dangerous.  Zion is a township in Lake County, Illinois and it's population in 1919 was declared to be  5460.  Named after Jerusalem's Mount Zion the settlement was founded in 1901 by a faith healer who ran Zion as a personal fiefdom though it later fell into the hands of a proponent of “flat earth theory” who maintained control until forced out when the extent of his corrupt activities became known.

When smoking was socially acceptable and some brands were marketed as "prestige products": Triumph Stag and Benson & Hedges cigarettes.  An advertisement from 1971 run in the FRG (Federal Republic of Germany, the old West Germany) which was a cross-promotion by B&H (Benson & Hedges) and Triumph, then part of the doomed British Leyland conglomerate.

Triumph never quite fixed the flaws in the Stag's unique 3.0 litre V8 (some were so fundamental they couldn't be fixed: only managed) but when the range was revised in 1973 (informally known as the "Mark II"), the parsimonious provision of ashtrays was improved, a central unit added for the rear-seat passengers who previously had none.  Triumph may have claimed the rear seat was intended for "children" and indeed leg room was a little "tight" but their in-period advertising sometimes featured four adults sharing the topless experience the Stag offered and it used to be that in a convertible, having a cigarette while enjoying the fresh air was all part of the fun.   

Because cigarette smoke is known to be carcinogenic and sustained use typically reduced the human lifespan by about a decade it was an admirable target in public health programmes and with big data sets assembled, things became more exact.  In December 2024, after running the numbers, a team at University College London released a report which concluded (on average) a single cigarette robs some 20 minutes from a person’s life; that means each pack can shorten life expectancy by about seven hours.  Historically, the term “pack-a-day-smoker” was based on the pack of 20 but those who buy the bigger packs can do their own math.  In theory, the report added, should a smoker quit on 1 January, they would by 8 January have extended their life-span by a day and if they avoid tobacco until 31 December, they’d have gained 50 days.  Explaining the findings, the team noted smoking usually “doesn’t cut short the unhealthy period at the end of life” but “primarily eats into the relatively healthy years in midlife, bringing forward the onset of ill-health. This means a 60-year-old smoker will typically have the health profile of a 70-year-old non-smoker.”   

GIF of a supine Lindsay Lohan, smoking in The Canyons (2013).

The unusual construct of the noun tobacconist (one who deals in tobacco) was tobacco + -n- + -ist.  The abnormal inserted consonant appeared to reflect the way the word actually was pronounced.  The sense of the commercial trader in the product dates from the 1650s although the earlier meaning, dating from the 1590s was “someone addicted to tobacco and by 1873 the word nicotinism (morbid effects of excessive use of tobacco) had been coined so the awareness of the adverse effects of tobacco are not new.  The first “tobacconist” (a shop where tobacco and related products are purchased) seems to have operated in Florida in the early 1800s.  The -ist suffix was from the Middle English -ist & -iste, from the Old French -iste and the Latin -ista, from the Ancient Greek -ιστής (-istḗs), from -ίζω (-ízō) (the -ize & -ise verbal suffix) and -τής (-tḗs) (the agent-noun suffix).  It was added to nouns to denote various senses of association such as (1) a person who studies or practices a particular discipline, (2), one who uses a device of some kind, (3) one who engages in a particular type of activity, (4) one who suffers from a specific condition or syndrome, (5) one who subscribes to a particular theological doctrine or religious denomination, (6) one who has a certain ideology or set of beliefs, (7) one who owns or manages something and (8), a person who holds very particular views (often applied to those thought most offensive).

Art deco: Snuffbox (left) and cigarette case (right).

Snuff (powdered tobacco to be inhaled) was first available in the1680s and was from the Dutch or Flemish snuf, a shortening of snuftabak (snuff tobacco), from snuffen (to sniff, snuff).  The practice of taking (sniffing) snuff quickly became fashionable in England and generated an industry in the making of “snuff boxes”; many small and exquisite, they’ve long been collectable.  The slang phrase “up to snuff” (knowing, sharp, wide-awake, not likely to be deceived) dates from 1811, the order of the words thought a reference to the upper-class association with the substance while the meaning is presumed to allude to the "elevating" properties of snuff.  The noun nicotine (which still appears occasionally in scientific papers as nicotin) describes the poisonous ,volatile alkaloid base found in tobacco leaves and was first documented in English in 1819, from the French nicotine, from the earlier nicotiane, from the Modern Latin Nicotiana, the formal botanical name for the tobacco plant, named for Jean Nicot (circa 1530-1600), the French ambassador to Portugal who in 1561 sent tobacco seeds and powdered leaves from his embassy in Lisbon to Paris.

Marlboro packaging.

Until the mid-twentieth century, there was much variation in packaging but in the post-war years things were (more or less) standardized in terms of size and shape.  It was a relatively small area with with to work and the convention which developed was to use the simple corporate symbol and product name, thus Marlboro's famous red-on-white chevron.  As the product range proliferated (women were a target market thought to have great potential), Philip Morris adopted the technique of semiotics to differentiate while retaining the same identifiable shape, the basic difference being in the color: red for the standard cigarette, blue for mild, green for menthol, gold for longer (ie 4 inch or 100 mm sticks) and black for higher-priced special offerings.  That didn't last and while some manufacturers stuck to the red (strong) / blue (mild) / green (menthol) convention, Marlboro's pack colors seemed increasingly to become random.       

James VI and I (1566–1625) King of Scotland as James VI (1567-1625) & King of England and Ireland as James I (1603-1625) was appalled by tobacco and in 1604 wrote the treatise A Counterblaste to Tobacco in which he left none in any doubt about how he felt and it’s a document which sounds very contemporary in its condemnation even if some of what was then medical orthodoxy is dated.  The king blamed the scourge of tobacco on Native Americans (although it was European adventurers which brought it from the New World) and was especially scathing about what is now called passive smoking, responding by imposing heavy taxes but such were the adverse consequences for the American colonies that in 1624 a royal charter was instead granted and the whole crop became a royal monopoly: it was the "if you can't beat them, join them" model to which which governments become attracted if there's money in it.  Written originally in Early Modern English (here transliterated) the king's words still read well:

Have you not reason to be ashamed, and to forsake this filthy novelty, so basely grounded, so foolishly received and so grossly mistaken as something good to use?  In your abuse you are sinning against God, harming both your health and your wallet, making yourselves look absurd by this custom, scorned and contemned by the civilized people of any nation.  It is a habit loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fumes are like the horrible Stygian smoke of the bottomless pit of Hell.

The king’s mention of Stigian is a reference to the goddess Styx (Στύξ) (stýks (literally “Shuddering”)) who in Greek mythology took the form of a river of Elia, Arcadia which surrounded Hades nine times and flowed from a rock into silver-pillared caves.  What the king probably had in mind was the tale that Stygian waters imposed senselessness for a year and a draft of the waters was decreed by Zeus for gods who had perjured themselves.  More positively though it was said of Zeus he also insisted the oaths of the gods be sworn by the water of the Styx.

Mid-century cigarette advertising.  Even in the 1950s the public's suspicion that tobacco was a dangerous product was rising and the industry's advertising switched from the traditional "lifestyle" model to one which relied on endorsements by celebrities and scientists; there was much quoting of research and statistics, much of which would later be wholly debunked.  The tactics and techniques were similar to those later adopted by the fossil fuel lobby in their long campaign to discredit the science of human-activity induced climate change. 

Marianne Faithfull (1946-2025), smoking.

Although there were always the fastidious types like James I who found it abhorrent, it wasn’t until late in the twentieth century that in the West governments began to crack down on the industry to the point where in many jurisdictions the stated aim is to eliminate it completely, the most recent innovation being progressively to raise the minimum age at which tobacco products can be purchased which, in theory, means that within decades, nobody will be able to buy them.

The Australian government took the conventional approach of taxing cigarettes to the point where the cost of consumption became prohibitive for all but the rich (who now tend not to smoke).  That method works well in economics textbooks and elegant models can even predict the point on the elasticity of demand curve at which the punitive taxation becomes effective but the IRL (in real life, a inconvenience which often annoys economists) what happened was organized crime began smuggling cigarettes from overseas where they remained cheap, selling them as "under-the-counter" merchandize in 7-11s and similar outlets, demand guaranteed because they cost Aus$20 rather than the Aus$60 of the lawful (and taxed) product.  As well as being addicted, smokers tend to be poorer than average so were pragmatic; while smoking may not be rational behavior, paying Aus$20 for a pack rather than Aus$60 certainly was and this had the unintended consequence of a rapid decline in government revenue.  Although the intention was to remove this form of revenue by reducing tobacco consumption to zero, what instead happened was much of the forgone money ended up instead with those in the criminal supply chain, organized crime (the importers) the greatest beneficiaries.  That was bad enough but organized crime is not monolithic and the gangs took up battle against each-other, the preferred method to gain control of regional distribution being to fire-bomb the shops obtaining their contraband from the opposition; fire spreading to surrounding shops (florists, hardware stores and such) was collateral damage.  Presumably, with alcohol prohibition in the US (1920-1933) being a well-documented case-study, the implications of the putative approach mush have been considered but governments seem to have though it "worth the risk".  Having effected their policy, the heath advocates might have hoped to see light at the end of the tunnel, only for vaping to become a thing.

Governments were always interested in tobacco as a form of revenue and taxing an addictive, lawful product provided for centuries a constant and often gradually increasing source of income and cynics like to note the attitudes seemed only to shift when advances in surgical techniques and drug treatments meant those suffering the consequences of a lifetime of tobacco use began to be kept alive for decades, often at public expense.  Previously, the afflicted had had the decency quickly to drop dead, usually at an age when their usefulness as economic units had either vanished or significantly diminished to the point where, as pensioners, they were a cost to society.  The BBC’s comedy Yes, Prime Minister explored the math & morals in a discussion between the prime-minister and the permanent head of the cabinet office.

Sir Humphrey Appleby: Notwithstanding the fact that your proposal could conceivably encompass certain concomitant benefits of a marginal and peripheral relevance, there is a countervailing consideration of infinitely superior magnitude involving your personal complicity and corroborative malfeasance, with a consequence that the taint and stigma of your former associations and diversions could irredeemably and irretrievably invalidate your position and culminate in public revelations and recriminations of a profoundly embarrassing and ultimately indefensible character.

Prime-minister: Perhaps I might have a précis of that?  It says here, smoking related diseases cost the National Health Service £165 million a year.

Sir Humphrey Appleby: Yes but we've been in to that, it has been shown that if those extra 100,000 people had lived to a ripe old age, it would have cost us even more in pensions and social security than it did in medical treatment.  So, financially speaking it's unquestionably better that they continue to die at their present rate.

Prime-minister: We're talking of 100,000 deaths a year.

Sir Humphrey Appleby: Yes, but cigarette taxes pay for a third of the cost of the National Health Service.  We're saving many more lives than we otherwise could, because of those smokers who voluntary lay down their lives for their friends. Smokers are national benefactors.

Prime-minister: So long as they live.

Sir Humphrey Appleby: A lot of people, eminent people, influential people have argued that such legislation would be a blow against freedom of choice.

Prime-minister: Rubbish. I'm not banning smoking itself. Does every tax rise represent a blow against freedom?

Sir Humphrey Appleby: Well, depends how big the tax rise is.

Prime-minister: Oh, that's fascinating. Does 20p represent a blow against freedom?  25p? 30p? 31? Is something a blow against freedom simply because it can seriously damage your wealth?

Sir Humphrey Appleby: I foresee all sorts of unforeseen problems.

Prime-minister: Such as?

Sir Humphrey Appleby: If I could foresee them, they wouldn't be unforeseen.

The Kennedy connection

The 1941 film Tobacco Road was based on the 1932 novel of the same name by Erskine Caldwell (1903-1987).  It involved a family living in poverty in the rural backwoods of the US and their antics did not suggest the possession even of average intelligence.  The term “tobacco road” came to be used as a slur against such folk and their lifestyle and while it’s usually an amusing disparagement exchanged between the rich and well-connected, even among them context can matter as Thomas Maier (b 1956) illustrated in one episode recounted in When Lions Roar: The Churchills and the Kennedys (2014) involving John Kennedy (JFK, 1917–1963; US president 1961-1963) and Pamela Harriman (1920–1997), later one of Western society’s last great courtesans but then just divorced from what had been a brief and understandably unhappy marriage to the even then dissolute Randolph Churchill (1911-1968), son of Winston (1875-1965; UK prime-minister 1940-1945 & 1951-1955).  Crooked old Joseph Kennedy (1888–1969) fashioned his sons to become politically powerful establishment figures but didn’t forget his great-grandfather had in 1848 left the poverty of rural Ireland during the potato famine to begin to build wealth and influence in Boston.  He’s made sure his sons knew the family history and when in Ireland in 1945, JFK’s curiosity had prompted a trip to the old Kennedy homestead:

At the Kennedy farm in County Wexford, accompanied by Pamela, Jack discovered not much had changed since his great-grandfather left. “I’m John Kennedy from Massachusetts,” he said after his knock on the door was answered. “I believe we are related.” His distant cousin Mary Kennedy Ryan seemed dubious at first but eventually invited the two strangers in for tea.

The Kennedys who remained in Ireland had spent much of the past century trying to regain the land rights to their tenant farms from the British and supporting Ireland’s independence movement led by such politicians as de Valera. Mary Ryan herself had been a member of the old IRA’s women’s auxiliary during the 1920s conflict against the British, carrying guns and money, either in carts or under her dress, to a secret hiding spot near their farm. “Jack kept pressing on about his ancestors going to America and so on, trying to make the link,” recalled Pamela. As a treat, Jack took the Irish Kennedy cousins for a short ride in Kick’s shining new station wagon, accompanied by the former Mrs. Randolph Churchill. “They never could figure out who I was,” recalled Pamela. “‘Wife?’ they’d ask. I’d say no. And they’d say, ‘Ah, soon to be, no doubt!’”

After nearly two hours “surrounded by chickens and pigs,” Jack recalled, he “left in a flow of nostalgia and sentiment.” The trip reaffirmed the Irish stories he’d heard from his parents and grandparents. Neither Pamela nor Kick, however, seemed impressed. As their car pulled away from the Kennedy farm, Pamela turned to Jack with a remark meant as witty. “That was just like Tobacco Road!” she tittered, referring to the popular novel about rural life in Georgia. Jack wasn’t amused. “The English lady,” he later recounted, ” …had not understood at all the magic of the afternoon.” To Dave Powers and Ken O’Donnell, his Irish-Catholic political aides from Boston, he was much blunter: “I felt like kicking her out of the car.” At Lismore, Lady Hartington was even haughtier. After listening to her brother’s wondrous account of the Kennedy homestead, Kick mustered only a bemused question. “Well, did they have a bathroom?”