17 August 2015, Resilience, Moral Discomfort, Privilege, and the Politics of Air-Conditioning…..Consider the cultural and historical perspective. Of course you could survive without air-conditioning, just as your grandparents and great-grandparents did and just as most people living in far hotter parts of Africa, South America, and Asia do.  At least a billion people of the world, mainly women, wash clothes exclusively by hand, and in climates much hotter than ours.  Most people still don’t own cars, but manage somehow nonetheless.  We often pity them but without really understanding their lives, supposing that we are the only people with happy and fulfilling lives.  Humans are far more adaptable and resilient than we are led to believe, and find joy and meaning in a broader range of conditions than we, who can command comfort at the push of a button, are often able to imagine, our sense of possibility withering under the cool dry air, perhaps.  Very few of us would actually be stricken with heat stroke by continuing with our daily household toil in all but the rarest of conditions. Read More here