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| Passenger side air conditioning in 1953 for my aunt and uncle |
© 2015 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. For most of our country's history
what we wanted was fine if we worked for it and did not cheat anyone. But now
we are talking about changing the debate to: you should only have what you absolutely
need, not that other stuff you want.
Take money. the Socialists among us talk
constantly about the fact that people don't need as much money as they have.
This is especially so for those who have money left over at the end of the
month. Shouting about income inequality there is a move to take from the rich
and give to the poor until everyone, regardless of how hard they work, has the
same as everyone else.
But there is something worse. Money
is one thing, air conditioning is another. A headline caught my attention: New
York University Professor Wants Government To Stop Us From Using Air-Conditioning.
Gosh! And the professor thinks he has a good reason to get the government to
take all of our A/C units away from us.
Sociology professor Eric Klinenberg
wrote an op-ed in Time magazine entitled, Air-Conditioning Will Be The End Of Us.
He is concerned American's power use for air-conditioning will increase the
effect of Global Warming and of course Global Warming is just about to
extinguish the human race.
He is not alone. Several people I
have spoken with agree A/C is not needed by most people, it is only wanted.
Count me as wanting A/C in the New Mexico summers. Do I need it? No, but this
is America where I should be able to live as I desire, not as the Socialists
desire me to live.
I have lived in the heat quite a bit
of my life, some of the time with just shade and cool water as my only relief
from hot days. During the summers of my youth I lived on my grandfather's ranch
and there was no A/C. He said, "If you work in the sunlight, the shade
will be cool enough."
Back then all of our vehicles had
the open window air-conditioning: roll two windows down and drive. When I came
to college in 1968 I did not have a car so I walked to campus, about a mile
each way. I did so in the heat, cold and gloom of night. There wasn't rain and
snow because this was New Mexico.
Even when I got my first car all it
had was windows to lower the temperature. The truth is that most of us did not
have what is now considered a necessity, air-conditioning. I have lived in
houses without A/C and we just sweltered in the heat but survived.
So the Socialists among us are right,
A/C use in this nation is because we Americans want it. Socialists think they can
end this danger to the planet. The problem will be when the government decides
that not enough of us are voluntarily casting off this want and they mandate
the end of citizen owned air-conditioning. How will Americans take losing
something they really want?
I owned a weekly newspaper when
President Jimmy Carter was trying to push Americans to be hotter in the Summer,
colder in the Winter. My shop was visited by an inspector who marveled that it
was 60 degrees in the building so we were good Carter people.
Actually I didn't own the building
and it had no insulation so 60 was as warm as I could get it. Then the
inspector looked for our piece of paper that was supposed to be on the wall
saying we supported people being cold in the Winter.
I deadpanned, "We burnt
it." He was aghast and started filling out a replacement certificate. When
he handed it to me, I said to my print shop foreman, "Dame fuego" - give
me fire - so Pete threw me his lighter. I lit the certificate as the government
worker sputtered inarticulately. He never came back.
When the government takes all of our
A/C units away from us, I wonder if we sheep will continue to vote as we have
in the past. Or will there be a tidal wave of sweat sending different leaders
into office? Yep.
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