Smoking is probably going to be banned completely in a few years. Fatty foods are under attack too. Why should we live as long as possible? Is there such a social pressure?
I guess there is, I don’t understand it either. I smoke, and other people feel perfectly justified telling me “that’ll kill you”. I love telling them “that’s fine with me”. I have no desire to be 90. I don’t think the human body was “designed” to last as long as we are trying to live.
The only possible objection I can think of is that smoking forces everyone else to pay for their added health care costs towards the end of their life, but with the hefty taxes they already put on ciggarretes, the smokers themselves should be able to cover that.
A few thoughts…
Maybe there’s a backlash against the people who sue McDonald’s, the tobacco companies, etc. They’re two sides of the same coin: not holding people responsible for their own choices.
Maybe it’s the parental instinct overstepping its bounds. Parents have the right and responsibility to keep their young children safe and healthy, by making and enforcing rules that keep the kiddies from doing things that are unduly dangerous or unhealthy. I think a lot of the “for your own good” laws we see are related to this instinct overstepping its bounds.
Some of the impetus behind banning smoking is for the sake of non-smokers, for whom being around smoking is annoying and possibly hazardous. This doesn’t justify a complete ban, but it does justify restrictions on when and where one may smoke.
It’s worth pointing out that the reason it’s a good idea to eat right, not smoke, etc. is not just so you’ll live as long as possible, but so you’ll be as healthy as possible while you are alive. Who wants to spend the last years of their life, whenever they are, in the hospital under an oxygen tent, or unable to walk more than 10 feet without feeling exhausted?
From a strictly utilitarian standpoint, the best thing for society is, not necessarily to have its members live as long as possible, but to minimize the amount of expensive medical care they’ll need—not to have them being a “burden on society.”
Suppose there were a substance that made you feel really really good but had a 50% chance of killing you right then and there, each time you took it. Should such a drug be legal? Should it be readily available on the shelves of the corner drug store to anyone who wants to buy it? If not, how do you decide what should be legal, what should be illegal, what should be restricted, and where you draw the line?
I don’t think there’s a social pressure towards living long long lives. Quite the contrary (more below). There is, however, a pressure to make life safe. Anything dangerous gets tagged for elimination as a social evil.
As far living to be ancient old fogies, no, we’re still a youth-obsessed (and infantile) culture. In my experience, most people have an image in their heads of themselves up to about, maybe, 60, that includes notions of what interests and activities and pursuits they will have. Ask them what comes to mind when they think of folks in their 70s and lots of them will describe sedentary folks with empty lives and medical problems and they don’t visualize them as having much fun. To my way of thinking, that means they are predisposing themselves to be mentally packing their bags and folding their hand when they get to be that age themselves, let alone 80 and 90 and beyond.
Me, I’m a middle-aged 45 and I’m happily anticipating the next 65 years 
Of course there is. Even though life is inevitably futile, you are supposed to live it until the end. I’ve noticed people don’t realize their own situation until it is far too late. In other words, hypocrites makes up a large percentage of the population.