'TRANSISTOR RADIOS SHOULD BE PROHIBITED IN PUBLIC PLACES'

'Transistor radios should be prohibited in public places'

We have all heard of the sort of person who drives fifty miles into the country, finds some perfectly delightful beauty spot beside a quiet lake and then spends the rest of the day cleaning his car. Compared with those terrible fiends, the litter-bugs and noise-maker 18318y2410s s, this innocent creature can only be an object of admiration. He interferes with no one's pleasure. Far from it: after all, cleanliness is said to be next to godliness. It is the noise-makers who invade the quietest corners of the earth that must surely win the prize for insensitivity. They announce their arrival with a flourish that would put the Royal Heralds to shame. Blaring music (never classical) seems to emanate mysteriously from their persons and their possessions. If you travel up the remotest reaches of the Amazon, surviving attacks by crocodiles and vicious piranha, don't be surprised if you hear cheering crowds and a football commentary shattering the peace of the jungle. It is only one of our friends with his little transistor radio. The transistor radio, that great wonder of modern technology, often no bigger than a matchbox, must surely be the most hideous and diabolic of all human inventions.

People are arrested, fined, imprisoned, deported, certified as insane or executed for being public nuisances. You can't loiter outside a shop for five minutes or sing the opening bars of Figaro in public without arousing the suspicion of every policeman in the neighbourhood. But you can walk on to a beach or into a park and let all hell loose with your little transistor and no one will turn a hair - no one in authority, that is. Most of the people around you will be writhing in agony, but what can they do about it? Have you ever tried asking the surly owner of a transistor to turn it off? This is what will happen if you do: you will either be punched on the nose for your impertinence, or completely ignored. After that you can be sure that the radio will be turned up louder than ever before.

Noise is one of the most unpleasant features of modern life. Who knows what it invisibly contributes to irritability and stress? Governments everywhere go to tremendous lengths to reduce noise. Traffic sounds are carefully measured in decibels; levels of tolerance are recorded and statistics produced to provide the basis for future legislation. Elaborate and expensive tests are conducted to find out our reactions to supersonic bangs. This is all very commendable, but surely the interest in our welfare is misplaced. People adjusted to the more obvious sources of noise ages ago. It is the less obvious sources that need attention. And the transistor radio is foremost among them. It is impossible to adjust to the transistor radio because the noise it produces is never the same: it can be anything from a brass band to a news commentary. Being inconsiderate is not a crime. But interfering with other people's pleasure certainly should be. It is ridiculous that the law should go on allowing this indecent assault on our ears.