Ear plugs can not only protect your ears, but also your peace of mind as well! Naturally, there are those who don’t mind noise and commotion. But what are you going to do in a city like New York where people live cheek by jowl stacked on top of one another?
You get ear plugs, that’s what! Inexpensive, they’re practically free when compared to what you get, some peace of mind. It ain’t just roommates, either, but neighbors – and not just apartment-dwellers but folks who live in houses: such is life in the big city!
So that’s when ear plugs can help. They’re not always going to solve the problem, but they are often helpful, minimizing the noise if not downright stopping it altogether. That’s because the ones you’re likely to find are only good for blocking up to 33 dcB of noise, which is about the level of a typical conversation. Those of better quality are not as easy to find and will require a bit of research to procure.
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. Of course, they shouldn’t be necessary to being with. But hardly anyone anywhere believes noise pollution to be a serious isse, one warranting official action. Believe it or not, even the city with the toughest noise pollution laws in the country, New York, treats the matter seriously enough. In fact, while most noise complaints involve residential neighbors, it is precisely this class of disputes that authorities there avoid handling!
“Hell is other people,” noted the French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, and municipal authorities in Gotham are loathe to intercede between neighbors. But what do the laws on the books do, then? 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. “It is what it is,” and most don’t mind what it is. That’s why it goes on. Mental sanity is not something that’s highly valued; indeed, not many know what true sanity is nor how noise plays an important part in preventing it!