Principle vs. Practice

[naomikritzer]

I read an article once that made a very compelling case for the idea that all sorts of social ills can be traced to air conditioning. Once upon a time, during the summer, you'd go outside to escape the heat, and see your neighbors, and participate in your community -- now you go inside and close all your windows and doors. Instead of taking your kids to the pool, you stay home. (If you're a small-government conservative -- are any of those still around? certainly not in the Bush administration -- you can also note the fact that the D.C.-based government bureaucracy would probably not exist without the comfort of air conditioning).

Anyway, I read the article and thought it made a whole lot of really good points.

But damn, is it ever nice to have air conditioning on a really hot, humid, sticky, miserable day.

If you'd like to think some cool thoughts, incidentally, here is Rudy's South Pole blog. On Monday, the temperature was -110.6F. He was going to go camping.

Comments

[squigsoup.livejournal.com]

It seems that someone could make an equally compelling argument that the oppressive heat foments aggression and rebellion and just plain wanting to kill each other (see: Watts riots, many African nations).