diseases of privilege/diseases of technology

Air conditioning is a sort of obsession among the El Pasoans. The minute it looks as though it might be warm, they flip the switch and I freeze. Worst of all are the young. They fan themselves and complain bitterly if they sweat. But air conditioning means excessive consumption of energy, and it's actually not healthy. I don't believe what they told me in the kidney doctor's office. I don't believe that freezing is omnipresent because they want to prevent the spread of germs. My immune system certainly doesn't function better when I am freezing. I catch more colds that way. And anyway, I think that it's a sort of knee-jerk stupidity: turn the goddamn thing on, because you've got it. Like using your car when you could easily walk. Me, I don't wear shorts in this miserable climate. It might be okay when I was outside, but inside the chilly domains of AC, I would freeze to death.