Turn Off, Tune Out, Drop In

Society built a center in noise.

Signal was exiled to distant edges, an ostracized outlaw subsisting with vagrant neighbors like knowledge, wisdom, health, and sensibility -- banished for not fitting in with progress.

Those who get college degrees spend their free time keeping up with the details of celebrities and entertainment products and their days filled with defending their occupation's shortcomings.

Noise, noise everywhere! Screaming babies, multifarious commercials about junk and poison, with gentle commands to comply with slow self-destruction for someone else's benefit. Not even a foothold for thought is allowed to exist.

Menacing knives do not prevent our defense. We start with noise canceling headphones on top of earplugs to remain undisturbed in the pollution others happily consume. Passing through public space and international flights now leaves us fresh on arrival while others are beaten and worn. There is not a single sound you need to hear on an airplane or in a city.

We need hearing for music, but need not listen to the noise of society. When not blocking public sound with an iPod, we should go voluntarily deaf, either with stealthy ear plugs or obvious ear protection signaling rejection of noise. We self-identify as hearing challenged citizens and will not remove our noise blocks for any unwanted interaction.

We choose to be deaf in public and are wealthier thereby.