Silence is golden
Civitas, 13 October 2009
Although I’m pretty certain my children would want to contest the claim, the prize for being the world’s grumpiest old man must surely go to the nineteenth century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer.
More than practically all else, what got up his nose was noise — especially that caused by traffic. Writing a century a half ago before the age of mechanised transport, he remarked:
‘With all due respect to the most sacred doctrine of utility, I really do not see why a fellow, fetching a cart-load of sand or manure, should thereby acquire the privilege of nipping in the bud every idea that successively arises in ten thousand heads (in the course of half and hour’s journey through a town). Hammering, the barking of dogs, and the screaming of children are terrible, but the real murderer of ideas is only the crack of a whip… That such an infamy is tolerated in towns is a crude barbarity and an iniquity… A fellow who rides through the narrow streets of a populous town… and keeps on cracking with all his might… deserves to be taken down at once and given five really good cuts with a stick. All the philanthropists in the world, and all the legislative assemblies which on good grounds abolish corporal punishment, will not persuade me to the contrary… With the universal tenderness for the body and all its gratifications, is the thinking mind to be the only thing that never experiences the slightest consideration or protection, to say nothing of respect?’
It is anyone’s guess quite what Schopenhauer would have made of today’s decibel levels in towns and cities. In addition to the noise made by cars, motor-cycles and buses, there is additionally that produced by aircraft and the interminable drilling that accompanies the ever more ubiquitous road-works that have become such a strking feature of urban life today. (I told you my children might well want to contest Schopenhauer’s title to be considered world’s grumpiest old man.)
Disturbing and preventing thought is by no means the only or main environmental damage that current decibel levels cause. According to a report just published by the World Health Organisation, the volume of noise from traffic today poses a serious health hazard to Europeans. According to the report:
‘Above 55 decibels – the noise of a busy street – people run the risk of severe effects such as blood pressure problems and heart attacks, as the body and brain react to sound while they are asleep. One in five Europeans are regularly exposed to such levels.’
Needless to say, overcrowded Britain comes low down the European league table for peace and quiet.
‘Street noise in Newcastle measured more than 80 decibels… Not far behind are London and Birmingham… Doncaster and Gillingham… [are] featuring above Manchester and Liverpool. Even Brighton was only five decibels quieter than London.’
It is surely odd that, in an age when huge public efforts are being expended to reduce carbon emissions to prevent environmental damage, little is being done to curb the very real and genuinely man-made health hazard that is posed by noise pollution. While not wishing to go quite as far as Schopenhauer in terms of proposed remedies, surely more can and should be done to combat this most unseemly and increasingly hazardous form of pollution.