Mechanized Misery

First machines began beeping and buzzing, then progressed to babbling -- usually long and uninteresting, often wrong. I quickly learned to tune them out. People who integrated fragmented babbling into their consciousness soon emulated machine communication. I quickly learned to tune them out.

Initially, iPods hinted at revolution, but that turned out to be the earplugs that shipped as headphones. Using iPods became popular not so much to hear what they were playing, but because they were a means to block out the cacophony of noise considered normal prior to an easy method to opt out.

Layered noise forms an assault. Using an iPod to block it is wrong because it renders music into background noise, extending the offense. There's a simpler and less expensive way to do better.

These ear plugs aren't perfect, but contribute a 32db reduction, making most public spaces tolerable. You quickly realize how we've constructed and tolerated (and thus agreed upon as a standard) conditions contrary to calm living and the possibility of thinking. Every outburst of noise piles upon the rest, and with seemingly everything offending, one more offender is merely part of the asserted culture of pollution, and every public space a dump for it.

Whether vehicles, tools, or machines, our technology is only suitable for cattle and other non-thinking beasts. We must disarm the attack with ear plugs and then additional over ear protection -- total war against sensory rape and pillage.

Once you get to -50db or -60db, you're approaching utopia, and perhaps a new enlightenment, defeating the Handicapper General with subversive noise censoring technology. This clears away pointless noise that communicates nothing, yet believes itself important enough to intrude upon your senses and constantly interrupts.

The slogan of our undisturbed earplug defense: Take back the day.