The rest is noise

Media commentators have no end of explanations of why our society seems to lack creative, or even sensible, ways to deal with national and international problems. We can't find a reasonable compromise or solution that sort of works: in the now-inescapable phrase, we "kick the can down the road," go for a holding action that will stave off the debacle a little longer.

This tendency is blamed on bad education, low-information voters, the debasement of politics to the level of professional (i.e., show business) wrestling, and numerous other factors. All those probably play a part, but there's another that may be even more basic -- noise. Life gets louder, sound more pervasive all the time, and noise keeps us from thinking.

It's hard to imagine now, but only a few hundred years ago, the environment (except in wartime battles) was close to silent. Nothing was much louder than human voices, and they were spoken at a lower volume than today, not having to compete with so many other sound sources. Nowadays it's not unusual when an exterior shot in a period film, complete with expensive actors, costumes, and props, has to be cut in the middle of a take because a jet plane flies overhead.

Noise pollution began with the Industrial Revolution and the factory system, but even their racket carried only so far. They say that horses' hooves and the metal wheels of carriages made for quite a din as they struck stone pavement, and possibly today's cars are quieter -- but big trucks and construction equipment aren't.

We entered a new era in the lifetimes of many of us when designers began deliberately creating environments to maximize noise. Restaurants used to have carpeted floors and sound-absorbing curtains, but now so many create a space where you have to shout to be heard thanks to bare stone or concrete floors and walls.

This trend is based on an untested assumption, that customers who grew up listening to rock music associate loudness with having a good time. That's probably true for some people, but what percentage? Has anyone ever done an objective focus group on the subject? Has any bar or restaurant experimented to see what the reaction, if any, would be by pumping down the volume?

Consider an analogous phenomenon, the TV monitors that are now in every public space, as if occupants will go mad without a telly around. Here we can get clues just by watching behavior. My observation is that, say in an airport lounge, almost no one pays attention to the idiot boxes -- all the more so now that smart phones, iPads, and tablets are typically among the clobber travelers carry. Even anyone who might otherwise be captivated by the big screens (almost inevitably tuned to CNN) can choose his own selected entertainment.

Getting back to the ubiquitous noise ... doubtless some people like it, or expect it. But unless someone does a methodologically sound (for once, no pun intended) study, we'll never know how many hate it. Introverts and the psychically sensitive "feel" noise powerfully; too much of it, and too loud, makes them tense. And while they may think so, introverts are not a tiny fringe of the population. For that matter, most people are at least a little psychic whether they realize it or not. It's just that our culture doesn't recognize this segment's needs because the entrepreneur/builder types are extraverts. 

If the designers of public spaces were as fanatical about creating quiet zones as they are about no-smoking zones, thinking and reading and quiet conversation would have a better chance. And so would our future.