[Polemic]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')i]"I have long held the opinion that the amount of noise that anyone can bear undisturbed stands in inverse proportion to his mental capacity and therefore be regarded as pretty fair measure of it." --Schopenhauer

The dynamics of our dystopia would inspire laughter and derision in more sensitive creatures. Every step of "progress" brings us error and displays systematic ignorance that wiser generations knew how to suppress. We merely avoid or tolerate (i.e. ignore) these problems instead of confronting them, expecting that any words critical of modern progress would leave us socially ostracized.

Modernity demands equality of the unequal so the worst ideas are treated just as seriously as the best. We oppose any public judging so that no one's feelings are hurt by the comparison of foolish ideas to sensible ideas. We advocate individualism and diversity, only to wonder why we no longer have unity or any shared social concerns. Our decisions are made for short-term economic advantage instead of eternal values. The newly wealthy who have enjoyed this shortcut profess confusion over the reason that our civilization is rotting from the inside.

The soundscape of our society blares with futile idiocy: morons babbling, canned music to provide "atmosphere", and endless mechanical noise now deemed normal simply because it is pervasive and most people are too numb to notice. No useful information is conveyed through this assault on our senses, while the possibility of silence is stolen from us.

[I_Like_Plants]

I like the sidebar about iPods. I refuse to own one.

[gampy]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('I_Like_Plants', 'I') like the sidebar about iPods. I refuse to own one.

[seldom_seen]

Yes, thank you from someone who is very sensitive to noise.

People have grown so accustomed to the noise that silence makes them uneasy, nervous, so they have to turn something on. Do something to make noise.

The thought of being alone in silence is unthinkable.

[PenultimateManStanding]

I usually don't notice it. One of the advantages to hearing impairment. But there is one noise that has always mystified me. I rather like it. I only notice it late at night or in the wee hours of the morning. That is the distant soft rumble of car tires on the freeways. All the individual sounds melt into one, spread out, attenuate and deepen. Sometimes I let it lull me to sleep. It's daylight right now and I can't hear it. I think its a phenomenon of nighttime acoustics.

[gampy]

I was at my parents place in the country a little while back, and the silence can be deafening. In winter I mean. No wind riffling through the trees (no leaves to riffle through.) No bird noises, or other forest chatter. No cars, no horns, nothing. It is bizarre to go for a walk, and the only sound you hear is your own breathing. I think humans need a little bit of aural stimulation. No wonder people get cabin fever in the winter. It's not the lack of human contact, it's the lack of noise. Any noise. It drives you batty after a while.

I love the sound of birds and chipmunks, the occasional owl hoot, the sound of the wind in the leaves. That is music. Not the cacophony of the city.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gampy', '
')I love the sound of birds and chipmunks, the occasional owl hoot, the sound of the wind in the leaves. That is music.

[Daculling]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gampy', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('I_Like_Plants', 'I') like the sidebar about iPods. I refuse to own one.

[dinopello]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PenultimateManStanding', 'T')hat is the distant soft rumble of car tires on the freeways.

[Baldwin]

The only loud sounds I enjoy are those of my bagpipes or other instruments playing war music.

But I agree, people are over-exposed to sound. COnstant bombardment by loud noise can have damaging health effects too.

[I_Like_Plants]

I'm not too far from the train tracks so I get to hear the trains..... that's not too bad, but the trailer-trash hillbillies next door like two things: LOUD engines (older hillbilly) and loud rap music (younger hillbilly).

I was at the Indian store getting some groceries today, and the owner asked how I was, since I guess I looked annoyed (I was, about the hillbillies which I'd have to perhaps walk past and call the cops on tonight, since it's friday night) and I mentioned, I was just fine in my new place until these horrible neighbors moved in, that I'd already called the cops on 3 times, that were, you know, trailer trash? Wow did that guy ever laugh! I paid for my stuff and we got talking a bit more, and I said, you know, the US is headed DOWN (thumb downward) and you know, it deserves to go down because of the kind of people it develops, and he said he sure agreed.

Trailer trash tend to grow up immersed in the sounds of a blaring TV and their ol' man and ol' lady fighting so lots of cuss words etc., there's always a loud-ass engine around, barking dogs, etc. For fun TTs like to go to the thrift store or any other store for that matter, and yell at each other from across the room.

One thing for sure, the Empire will die with more of a bang than a whimper.

[Daculling]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dinopello', '
')One year I lived in a poorly made building right next to the train tracks. At least one big train came by every night and shakin the earth pretty good. That was a cool sound/vibration,

[username]

It's been predicted that in a few decades we're going to have an "epidemic" of deafness from all the engines and blaring electronic entertainment. I've read they're trying to make hearing aids be somewhat fashionable like glasses so that they won't be associated with being handicapped or elderly.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Daculling', 'I') did use it to watch porn on an airplane when I first got it, but that upset people. I'm a scumbag

[I_Like_Plants]

We're going to have an epidemic of deaf little ol' Hispanic guys for sure. Poor bastards have to go out with those damn leaf blowers, and listen to that lawnmower engine strapped to their back, what a miserable job to make a guy do.

But yeah, I can see an epidemic of deaf hipsters from their stupid iPods too..... and since the thing to do in the US is to get fat, beginning in your pre-teens if possible, I wonder if deafness is one of the things diabetes tends to do to you? I know it does a lot of other stuff, from blindness to heart attacks.....

[blukatzen]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('I_Like_Plants', 'W')e're going to have an epidemic of deaf little ol' Hispanic guys for sure. Poor bastards have to go out with those damn leaf blowers, and listen to that lawnmower engine strapped to their back, what a miserable job to make a guy do. $this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')
It's not only leaf blowers, it's also lawnmower themselves, and all the other gadgetry that some of their jobs have them use.
However, there are plenty of Hispanic guys in my neighborhood with those gods-awful mega-speakers that BOOM-BOOM-BOOM their choice of music at you. You can hear it in your house, inside the back rooms sometimes. What must it be like inside the car?

[FourOfSwords]

Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation.... Tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster his ego. His anxiety subsides. His inhuman void spreads monstrously like a gray vegetation.
-- Jean Arp, Sacred Silence
Sums it up for me.
A.

[TheDude]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('username', 'I')t's been predicted that in a few decades we're going to have an "epidemic" of deafness from all the engines and blaring electronic entertainment.

[I_Like_Plants]

It does kill the occupants - their bodies will still go around and be good consumers but brain, soul, forget it.

I just called the cops about my trash neighbors, their boom-boom music was booming the whole neighborhood.

[PeakOiler]

Loneliness is eating a frozen TV dinner to the sound of the refrigerator running.

[I_Like_Plants]

That's not loneliness you fool, that's the American Way.