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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!ihnp4!ihuxe!chrz
From: chrz@ihuxe.UUCP (p. chrzanowski)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Noise pollution, majority rules
Message-ID: <1230@ihuxe.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 14-Oct-85 13:22:13 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihuxe.1230
Posted: Mon Oct 14 13:22:13 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 16-Oct-85 04:48:45 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
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> 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 care 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 in 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?