Ear plugs do more than just protect your hearing; they will protect your very sanity! Of course, some people like hustle and bustle, but many others prefer to keep commotion at a minimum. But how about those who react badly to living like sardines in a can?
You get ear plugs, that’s all! They’re cheap for getting something so precious back in return: your ability to hear yourself think. It’s an unfortunate fact of urban life that one’s neighbors are usually on the other side of the wall – or, even, the other side of the door in the case of roommates!
So that’s where ear plugs can help. They should be helpful to some degree, if not a perfect final solution. Most commonly available kinds, however, are only rated up to thirty-two or thirty-three decibels, an absurdly low level of prevention, one comparable to mild conversational tones. For something stronger, specialty models are necessary, but these are nowhere near as easily found on the marketplace.
No matter how effective, however, wearing them all the time may be uncomfortable. While many people get used to them, others find the practice increasingly irritable, especially when reusing ear plugs. Ultimately, no one should have to live with noise pollution in the first place. Unfortunately, most legal jurisdictions do not find the matter an important one to adjudicate. In fact, even in New York City, reputedly the one place in the entire United States with stringent anti-noise laws on the books, enforcement is often wanting due to not enough resources being devoted to the issue, particularly manpower. And ironically, the one greatest source of noise complaints, that between neighbors, is precisely what civic involvement tends to shy away from!
“Hell is other people,” noted the French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, and municipal authorities in Gotham are loathe to intercede between neighbors. So what, then, does their vaunted noise pollution laws actually do? What is Mayor Bloomberg’s signature 311 civic complaints hotline doing besides simply giving out information?
It seems like most people don’t mind noise. That’s the sad truth, in the final analysis: most folks just don’t mind it. That’s why it goes on. Folks likely aren’t all that aware how important mental sanity is – nor, even, the inverse relationship between it and noise pollution!