[lbo-talk] why the water will soon be around our ankles

Sean Andrews cultstud76 at gmail.com
Sun Dec 10 08:20:37 PST 2006


On 12/10/06, Colin Brace <cb at lim.nl> wrote:
> On 12/8/06, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> > And how does the New Press, from whom I
> > rent the space, deal with the overheating? By running the air
> > conditioning (which they do pretty much all winter long)!
>
> Why don't they just open a window?

If it's like most of the buildings I work in, the windows are sealed shut or aren't even made to open. It's institutional technocratic rationality in its purest expression--and also a good example of how cultural norms (i.e. the use of climate controlled environment and the fear/insurance liability of the safety hazard of an open window in a building more than four stories high) determine behavior. It is a small scale version of the problems mentioned here about the general lack of choice in urban/suburban life--or the way that choice is circumscribed to a narrow range of possibilities, most of which result in the greatest profit and least risk for the developer, regardless of effects on the citizens or the environment involved.



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