What could be worse than a heat index that grazes the 50s — a sudden spike in “apparent temperature” that pushes Education officials to declare class cancellations? Judging from conversations that resulted from these announcements, a more terrible reality beyond the insane weather these days is the “delicate” nature of children nowadays.

According to some hardy (or hardened) citizens of this country, today’s kids have become too “soft,” unable to survive the tough conditions in the world. Mental wellness (given to anxiety and depression), they posit, is likely used as a shield to avoid toil, turmoil and sacrifice — not that anyone would want to do any of these at all, if they can help it.

Some suppose that the youth’s diminishing levels of toughness are at a danger level in a world fast demolishing itself. With all the educational tools available to them, young people simply don’t develop diligence in the same way that previous generations did. Nobody is blaming anybody, of course — people usually turn out to be the products of their environment and circumstances.

A second area of concern, for some, has to do with the disruptive political climate in the world. It is no secret that the Trump-ing of certain truths and norms has been deeply disturbing. We have been forced to watch as the leader of the free world toppled values once held dear — like caring for the planet and helping those in need.

Instead, we have US President Donald Trump declaring that he wants to “bring back plastic straws” because “paper ones don’t work,” pout, pout.

We also have the American world leader ordering the removal of gender and sexual orientation distinctions beyond the acceptable two, affecting important data from health organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that contain crucial “demographic variables.”

To get a sense of its import, an article on The Atlantic’s social platform carried a long caption which ended with: “Should they be reworded, or even removed entirely, from data sets…researchers and healthcare providers might have a much harder time figuring out how diseases affect specific communities… Public health data are collected with the intention of sussing out which populations most need health interventions; altering that data leaves behind a skewed portrait of reality.”

There must, indeed, be wisdom so deep in Trump’s actions that most people cannot see it. From slashing USAID to foreign countries and declaring plans to transform war-torn Gaza into a commercial hub, letting a person arguably as influential as he is on social platforms advise him on national matters, to chastising the leader of Ukraine on national TV, Trump has demonstrated a method to madness a few have been able to understand.

In a way, this kind of heat is a more dangerous index than the reported level 46°C at the Science Garden in Quezon City and Clark Airport in Pampanga.

People are already manifesting symptoms like social media fatigue, fake news-induced dizziness, shock headaches, and disgust-ridden vomiting.