chrz@ihuxe.UUCP (p. chrzanowski) (10/14/85)
*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR ***
I ORIGINALLY POSTED THIS ON NET.FLAME:
I didn't much care for pop music when I was a teen, and I still don't.
I am FED UP with having others musical preferences forced on me.
This flame is about *NOISE* :
* At work * Around here people play portable radios, car radios with
12v. power supplies, home stereos, etc. in offices and labs.
Most turn it down when asked -- but (1) I really don't want it
down, I want it OFF, and (2) I'm fed up with constantly
having to ask.
* At play * Around here, all the city owned swimming pools are
equipped with metal horn loudspeakers -- the better to
blare top 40 MOR music with. The park district people
respond "but most people using the pools like it".
Maybe so, but it is my pool too - I pay taxes to
maintain and operate it.
* At home * My city gov't thinks it's a great idea to allow
the merchants assoc. to hire rock bands to play in
city parking lots -- LOUD, you can hear it over a
mile away. I don't LIKE being forced out of my home
by city hall.
This is some of the dialog which ensued:
> I didn't much care for pop music when I was a teen, and I still don't.
> I am FED UP with having others musical preferences forced on me.
>> Are you suggesting that you want your musical preferences forced on others?
I guess that blaring noise at you in front of your home, at your
workplace, or at publicly owned facilities might get you to
quit subjecting me to YOUR noise but actually no, I was not
trying to tell you what you *should* listen to anymore than I
would try to tell you what you *should* read.
> The second complaint involved a public place, where
> the first poster complains about the use of Muzak (tm, by the way)
> at a swimming pool. (s)He details the results of a complaint
> to the management. While the management's position is supportable,
The pool is not a privately owned public accomodation, it is owned
by the city in which I live. This is very different from my telling
the owner of a private club what I would like to hear. As a resident I am
forced to pay the maintenance and operating costs of this pool. Furthermore,
the pool is a community resource; it belongs to me, too. BTW, it is not
Muzak (tm) that blares from the metal horn, pole mounted speakers that
rim the pool but (what else ?) top-40 radio.
> The first [complaint] was involving work, where the use of personal
> stereos, etc, was creating a work environment that was
[difficult for me to work in]
Actually I think "personal stereos" ("walkmans") are a real good
idea (the music here at work comes from large, high powered amplifier)
as is the idea of holding loud concerts a LONG way from where
people live (there are quite a few such areas around here) or at the
least having them in indoor facilities with appropriate soundproofing.
Even so, I think most of the responsibility for finding solutions rests
with those who are making the noise -- it's pretty offensive for you
to create a very annoying nuisance and then tell me that since I'm
bothered it must be my problem.
The issue is, as a number of netters said, minority rights -- or, as I
put it, respect for human diversity (the issue is moral and social as
well as legal and political). Indeed, the U.S.A is becoming more
homogenous than ever before: the food, the music, the architecture,
look pretty much the same in Portland, OR as in Portland, ME.; one
chain newspaper, bookstore, pizzahouse, moviehouse looks/sounds
pretty much like another. It is indeed difficult to march to
a different drummer (in my head) while being assaulted by the percussion
booming out of your noisebox, but the issue does go beyond pop music
or even pop culture (whatever that is).
While this is not even close to being a fair comparison, I think it
is worth noting that Herr Hitler came to power legally in the
Weimar Republic of Germany, a democratic state, and although he
abolished the democracy nonetheless His Mustached Majesty almost
certainly retained the support of a very large majority of Germans.
It is not "the system" that makes democracy work (or not) but the
participants. When considering whether you want to force your
(admittedly) popular music on me today, consider that the wheel
turns and tomorrow it may be you who is the minority: would
you prefer to live in a society where anything goes as long as
it is sufficiently popular, or a society that respects the right
of an individual to be different up to the point where that difference
infringes on the rights of others?heiby@cuae2.UUCP (Heiby) (10/17/85)
In article <1229@ihuxe.UUCP> chrz@ihuxe.UUCP (p. chrzanowski) writes: >Even so, I think most of the responsibility for finding solutions rests >with those who are making the noise -- it's pretty offensive for you >to create a very annoying nuisance and then tell me that since I'm >bothered it must be my problem. The same situation exists with smoking. Since leaving the enlightened realm of Minnesota for the barbaric land of Illinois, I have been told countless times in restaurants that if the smoke is bothering me that I must be A) stupid, B) overly sensitive, C) some kind of jerk. Why people believe they have the right to inflict their noise or pollution on me is beyond my understanding. Is there any kind of legal protection against either of these practices? -- Ron Heiby {NAC|ihnp4}!cuae2!heiby Moderator: mod.newprod & mod.unix AT&T-IS, /app/eng, Lisle, IL (312) 810-6109 "No; my legs are written in a functional programming language." (J. McKie)