
In U.S. Jails, a Constitutional Clash Over Air-Conditioning - eplanit
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/16/us/in-us-jails-a-constitutional-clash-over-air-conditioning.html
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wahern
I suspect this is an area where both liberals and conservatives will be proven
hypocritical. (Full disclosure: I consider myself fairly liberal.)

Background: Air conditioning is a luxury in most parts of the world. Even in
some developed, relatively wealthy parts of the world air conditioning is not
universal. When I visit Malaysia and Singapore the houses I visit only have
A/C in the bedrooms, and only for sleeping. The daytime temperature inside
easily reaches the mid-90s. And these houses are owned by people with first-
world wealth, some in their 70s and 80s with typical ailments and conditions.
The same state of affairs exists commercially--plenty of restaurants lack AC,
including restaurants frequented by the wealthy. As long as you have a fan you
quickly adapt. I suspect many places will never see the same level of
ubiquitous air conditioning Americans enjoy because it hasn't always become as
powerful of a status symbol.

(Also, A/C isn't all its cracked to be. Comfort is much more malleable than
you'd think. Like most Americans I used to only drink cold water. After
adapting to some Asian locales where you typically drink tepid and even warm
water with your meal, if not piping hot tea, I could not longer even stomach
drinking cold water. It's also bad for your teeth. I now prefer my Pellegrino
at room temperature ;)

Why will it expose hypocrisy? Because liberals argue that the standard for
cruel & unusual punishment should be measured by reference to not only
domestic norms, but also international norms, and especially the norms of
other modern nations. By that standard, lack of A/C doesn't even come close to
being cruel & unusual, except in the most exceptional of individual cases. It
couldn't even be considered any kind of punishment, certainly not in the Deep
South. I grew up in NW Florida--Singapore and Malaysia are at least as bad.

OTOH, conservatives argue the standard should be measured only by reference to
domestic norms. While not all conservative interpretations reference
contemporary norms, many do. The contemporary norm in the U.S. is (and has
been for decades) that A/C is absolutely necessary for a civilized existence.

We regularly hear stories about heatstroke every year and assume that the
elderly are completely incapable of living without A/C. In our collective
imagination it follows that lacking A/C must somehow be unhealthy even for fit
folk, especially considering how uncomfortable most of us feel in the heat. I
won't be surprised if and when I hear some conservatives make reference to
norms in other countries when discussing the necessity for A/C. They'd have
to, because most Americans think of lacking A/C as some kind of punishment.
And even if that punishment doesn't rise to cruel & unusual, it would clearly
be easier for conservative pundits to persuade by reference to international
norms rather than trying to explain why A/C is punishment but not cruel
punishment. It's too easy to counter the punishment-but-not-cruel-punishment
argument, as a rhetorical matter, by appealing to our notions of healthy &
safety. And those notions are pretty twisted.

