My mom and I were having a chat on Skype which turned into a commentary on the Brexit and led my mom to ask if I had heard that they were trying to take English people's electric tea pots away.
Mom and I have had several conversations like this through the years.
The source of her bleak information is usually a religious organization or Fox News.
Because I had been through this sort of thing before I was able, without knowing what she was talking about, to make an educated guess as to what had happened.
My take on it was this; the European Union had come up with a climate change initiative that included upgrading certain technologies to be more energy efficient. There would be a gradual phasing out of old appliances while new, more energy efficient models were made available.
Guess who was right?
At no point was a squad of black-clad, shadowy government types going to go door to door, barging in and forcefully removing electric tea kettles.
At no point was the evil government going to deprive its citizens of their daily Earl Grey fix.
But that's just not good enough for some "news" outlets.
Gradual change towards energy efficiency isn't terrifying enough so it needs to be sensationalized.
I find this sort of thing exhausting.
It takes so much energy to maintain a constant state of fight or flight against imaginary foes.
How much doomsday reporting do you sit through before you start to realize none of it is true?
How long do you listen before you realize the people telling you about these things are wrong and have been consistently wrong for years.
I was worn out over this sort of thing long before Fox and Friends reached its nadir.
While I was growing up it seemed that every year someone in my mother's religion would declare that the end of the world was nigh.
The passing of time always showed them to be wrong. Wrong and highly paranoid.
I spent a whole year of my young life worried about the coming of the Antichrist because of a terrible 1970s film my church's youth group made us watch.
I had serious depression and anxiety issues because of this film and wondered if there was really any point to continue living.
Life is too short to to be in a state of constant fear over something that will never happen.
My mother is extremely educated and I wonder sometimes why she continues to take these sorts of reports at face value.
I read to her from a British article on the tea kettle issue saying that a more energy efficient model had been available for some time and would gradually replace older ones.
And by the way, this is what happens with all technology; cars, refrigerators, computers, etc.
When was the last time you heard someone complain about power steering in a car? Or weep for the return of the gaming graphics available with the Commodore 64? Or pine for the days when the refrigerator door didn't give you crushed ice and filtered water?
This is because things have mostly changed for the better.
I also told mom I realized that initiatives like this can have tragicomic side effects.
My mom moved into a new house during the time the U.S. required all new homes to install low flow toilets. The idea was that these toilets would waste less water per flush.
It turned out that the low flows needed four or five flushes to achieve what the original toilets had done in one flush.
There was even a small run to the Canadian border to buy the old school toilets there.
Through the whole situation however, no one was forced to go toilet-less.
I will end this post with a solemn poem in hopes that we may never become complacent about government overreach.
"Fist they came for the Cuisinarts, and I did not speak out-
Because I had a Nutri Ninja
Then they came for the Hoovers, and I did not speak out-
Because I had a Dyson Ball
Then they came for my electric tea kettle, and I had to buy the new eco friendly model."
Mom and I have had several conversations like this through the years.
The source of her bleak information is usually a religious organization or Fox News.
Because I had been through this sort of thing before I was able, without knowing what she was talking about, to make an educated guess as to what had happened.
My take on it was this; the European Union had come up with a climate change initiative that included upgrading certain technologies to be more energy efficient. There would be a gradual phasing out of old appliances while new, more energy efficient models were made available.
Guess who was right?
At no point was a squad of black-clad, shadowy government types going to go door to door, barging in and forcefully removing electric tea kettles.
At no point was the evil government going to deprive its citizens of their daily Earl Grey fix.
But that's just not good enough for some "news" outlets.
Gradual change towards energy efficiency isn't terrifying enough so it needs to be sensationalized.
I find this sort of thing exhausting.
It takes so much energy to maintain a constant state of fight or flight against imaginary foes.
How much doomsday reporting do you sit through before you start to realize none of it is true?
How long do you listen before you realize the people telling you about these things are wrong and have been consistently wrong for years.
I was worn out over this sort of thing long before Fox and Friends reached its nadir.
While I was growing up it seemed that every year someone in my mother's religion would declare that the end of the world was nigh.
The passing of time always showed them to be wrong. Wrong and highly paranoid.
I spent a whole year of my young life worried about the coming of the Antichrist because of a terrible 1970s film my church's youth group made us watch.
I had serious depression and anxiety issues because of this film and wondered if there was really any point to continue living.
Life is too short to to be in a state of constant fear over something that will never happen.
My mother is extremely educated and I wonder sometimes why she continues to take these sorts of reports at face value.
I read to her from a British article on the tea kettle issue saying that a more energy efficient model had been available for some time and would gradually replace older ones.
And by the way, this is what happens with all technology; cars, refrigerators, computers, etc.
When was the last time you heard someone complain about power steering in a car? Or weep for the return of the gaming graphics available with the Commodore 64? Or pine for the days when the refrigerator door didn't give you crushed ice and filtered water?
This is because things have mostly changed for the better.
I also told mom I realized that initiatives like this can have tragicomic side effects.
My mom moved into a new house during the time the U.S. required all new homes to install low flow toilets. The idea was that these toilets would waste less water per flush.
It turned out that the low flows needed four or five flushes to achieve what the original toilets had done in one flush.
There was even a small run to the Canadian border to buy the old school toilets there.
Through the whole situation however, no one was forced to go toilet-less.
I will end this post with a solemn poem in hopes that we may never become complacent about government overreach.
"Fist they came for the Cuisinarts, and I did not speak out-
Because I had a Nutri Ninja
Then they came for the Hoovers, and I did not speak out-
Because I had a Dyson Ball
Then they came for my electric tea kettle, and I had to buy the new eco friendly model."
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