Posted on 03/29/2006 7:39:52 AM PST by tellw
Our right to peace and quiet is guaranteed by fining taxi drivers from India who honk as they drive: a habit acquired through years of dodging cycles, cows, cars and the carefree in the crowded streets of Calcutta and Karachi. Flights are not allowed to land in Washington DC beyond late evening so that those living around the airport enjoy what is now widely regarded as the human right to undisturbed sleep. Yet, noise pollution, practised with abandon in your face and in your ears, is tolerated in enclosed spaces in buses, trains, restaurants and cinemas and is spreading like bird flu, only more surely and more harmfully to our peace of mind and mental health.
The final straw in the US (followed, presumably, by everywhere else in rapid sequence) is the impending decision to allow the use of mobile phones on flights. In this way, loud passengers will be free to jabber away in a closed cabin, saying “hi” to Joey, Joel and Josie at home just for the heck of it, or conducting their business, which is no concern of yours, by public declamation. What can be done if the US Federal Aviation Administration allows this madness to happen, as it will? I say: we are not out of remedies.
Consider what you can do in the aircraft cabin itself. Before the Good Samaritans came down on smoking, I had a friend who was so annoyed by the smoke getting into his eyes in restaurants – as the smokers at the next table held their cigarette in a Marlene Dietrich gesture, almost under his nose – that he carried a little Sanyo fan that would blow the smoke back into their startled faces. While the stewardesses would not let you turn on a CD player at loud volume to drown out the mobile phone users, how about screaming into your own phone (without, of course, actually dialling and paying) sweet nothings to an imaginary girlfriend or boyfriend? This is worth a try. But frankly, how long and how often can such ridicule and retaliatory noise-making be sustained, without unleashing a competition in steadily higher octaves, one which the vulgar freaks you are trying to drown out are likely to win?
A more effective remedy has to be a collective, legal response. How about encouraging environmental and human rights groups to file lawsuits against the agencies that grant the permission for the use of mobile phones in flight, and against the airlines when they act on such permission? The American Association of Retired Persons might be convinced to join such a class action, in defence of the peaceful journeys sought by the increasing numbers of senior citizens taking discounted vacations from the rich countries.
The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms, under Article 8, guarantees that “everyone has the right to respect for his private . . . life” and “there shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as in accordance with the law and necessary . . . in the interests of . . . the economic well-being of the country”. Surely, the “private life” includes a life of peace in which one can snooze without the gaggle of gratuitous talk that certainly does not advance any country’s economic well-being.
But what of the rights of the mobile phone users? These are more frivolous than those of the fellow passengers on whom they impose. Besides, the airlines can readily accommodate their desire to talk without imposing on those who seek a quiet flight. Mobile phone users should be provided, at an extra cost charged to their tickets, with a phone booth at which they can queue for their turn. That would protect their rights without invading ours.
The smoking ban on all flights came along when the science behind the problem of secondary harm from smoking became well-established. But this harm does not have to be physical; it can also be mental. The stress of having to be in an enclosed space with continuous noise is sufficient to produce high blood pressure, fatigue and other ailments, as the plaintiffs complained in their testimony regarding airport noise in Hatton and Others v The United Kingdom at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in 2001. It is still not completely clear whether continual emission of radiation from the use of mobile phones on flights could cause secondary brain damage to fellow passengers. If providence were just, it would surely affect the brains of the users. But who believed at first that cigarettes could hurt the smoker’s own family?
So, perhaps the compelling answer may be to threaten the mobile phone companies themselves with ultimate liability, reminding them of the cigarette manufacturers who eventually faced huge financial damages. Eventual retribution could be the most powerful deterrent to the rising spectre of cellular noise.
The writer, university professor, economics and law, at Columbia University and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, is the author of In Defense of Globalization
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I have never advocated stopping anyone from talking or using their phone, merely asking that they do so in moderation without telling everyone within 300 feet with their high volume.
At least the cell phone talkers go away after a bit of time (if you're lucky), but the music everywhere is ALWAYS there!
Once again, what's wrong with a little silence? (I'm not talking to you, just generally).
People are afraid to be alone or quiet because they might actually have to think about something and confront themselves.
Yeah, but just not the ones pictured there. Those are E.A.R. Classics, or similar, otherwise known as the "big yellow cylinders." They work really well but are not very comfortable, due to their size, relative stiffness and open cell foam. I'd suggest any of the plugs with a smooth outer coating, and preferably ones made of a very soft foam - E.A.R. "EARSofts" or Howard Leight "Laser Lites" are very good. I always wear foam earplugs when riding my motorcycle (for the wind noise, not the engine, which is not that loud) and so have had the opportunity to try quite a few different types. Some people have unusually large ear canals and may need a larger diameter plug for effective sealing. EARSofts and EARSoft Neons are available in two sizes.
I got myself a set of custom-moulded silicone earplug speakers for use while riding, flying, etc. With all the external noise (or at least 20 dB(A)) blocked out you can enjoy listening to music from a personal player at a reasonable level that won't harm your hearing.
"My theory is that people nowadays are afraid of silence, afraid of being left with their own thoughts. Might get depressed. Need a distraction. Dang it, you did get me started!"
You're absolutely right. I've said this to myself and others. You can "distract" your life away and wind up with nothing. People are afraid of solitude and silence.
From your lips to Mineta's ears...
Sounds like you might need a change of scene--a rural sojourn. A lot of the reason I'm where I am is to get away from the cacaphony.
OK
I've written Starbuck's, Barnes and Noble, etc., letters to ask that they NOT have constant "music" or at least turn it down or have customer controlled volume or off switches for the music, but they wrote back and said their customers "preferred" having music. What it's about is selling CD's.
Silence is an alien concept to many people. I've actually thought about moving into the deep country to escape the constant noise.
I don't think I'm weird or paranoid either. I do think excessive and constant noise drives people insane and promotes violence. Ever lived near a house with dogs that bark endlessly and every whisp of wind or leaf rattle? Should you shoot the dogs or their owners first?
I've read of a group that says there's only a few truly quiet places left in the world.
I never thought I'd miss Muzak with its elevator versions of mellow pop hits (I still remember the great orchestral interpretations of the Beatles that Muzak played.) The difference nowadays? It's no longer soft instrumental music, it's all vocal. Words, words, words to combat the silence and thoughts people seem to fear. In fifteen minutes I'm going to a yoga class with a fantastic teacher, who, unfortunately, thinks he has to play CDs of some annoying new age garbage throughout. It's all instrumental, or idiotic chanting, and totally unnecessary.
Maybe that's what caused the plane to crash. (/extremely poor taste humor)
I've heard good things about those Bose headphones (chiefly from frequent air travellers). If you live and like the city, you might look at them. They are expensive--everything Bose is. I think they'd also be good for tuning out chatty seatmates (I'd rather have a cellphone user next to me than some of the strangers who have used me as a captive audience.)
You haven't been around me, I didn't ignore.
I don't doubt that. But it's beside the point.
Before boarding El Al for my trip to Israel, I asked the interviewer if he wanted me to turn on my video cam, he looked amused.
LOL we are obviously at the point where we agree to disagree.
With the total lack of amenities nowdays in airline travel--freedom from the annoyance of someone blabbing loudly into a cell phone--is about the last creature comfort left when flying.
JUST SAY NO!
Ya think?? ;o)
It is worth repeating at this point the theories that Ford had come up with, on his first encounter with human beings, to account for their peculiar habit of continually stating and restating the very very obvious, as it 'It's a nice day," or "You're very tall," or "So this is it, we're going to die."
His first theory was that if human beings didn't keep exercising their lips, their mouths probably seized up.
After a few months of observation he had come up with a second theory, which was this - "If human beings don't keep exercising their lips, their brains start working."
-Douglas Adams, "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe"
I suppose somebody had to say it...
As long as the airlines have a rule that the cell phone user must hang up if someone objects, I don't have a problem with using them. I just don't want my sleep disturbed by someone yelling into their phone.
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