Smoking on the Platform

A skinny kid smokes a long cigarette on the subway platform. Obviously you're not allowed to smoke on the subway platform. There are signs posted throughout the station which say as much in no uncertain terms. This is America after all.

He's squatting down low with his back squared against a square pillar to obscure him from the view of the station manager. The station manager would likely reprimand him were it not for this concealment. Or perhaps the station manager would choose not to get involved. This is America after all.

I wonder if our antihero fancies himself the rebel: a James Dean of Parliament 100s and casual scofflaw unyoked to such social niceties as honoring signage. Or is it possible he instead sees himself as hopelessly enslaved to a vast industry trading in poison, addiction, and death? Cowering behind a pole so as not to be found out, he smokes to stave off withdrawal for another 20 or 30 minutes. Then he'll have to do it again. And again. And again. But surely he's his own man. Everyone is John Galt in America.