Smoking

While smoking is seen by most as either a mere immediate pleasure or disgusting habit, it is the symbolism behind smoking that makes it so powerful: smoking has long been intertwined with our fundamental notions of freedom. Alexander II gave freedom to the smokers right before he gave freedom to the serfs, and almost any tyrant you can name, starting with Hitler, banned smoking outright or in practice; indeed, one of the sparks of the American Revolution itself was the right to smoke tobacco.