Introduction

Noise, defined as objectionable sound, is emerging as one of the most pernicious--and ignored--health problems of the 21st century. Sound widely considered objectionable originates from sources such as leafblowers, truck and car traffic, overhead aircraft, boom cars, car alarms, overly loud stereo equipment whether mobile or stationary, aggressive sports play such as involving loud, hard, or frequent basketball dribbling, modified motorcycle exhaust, wood chippers, noisy music clubs or nightclubs, vehicle horns, revving vehicle engines, backup warning tones from commercial and municipal vehicles, power generation, air conditioning, concrete cutting, or other outdoor equipment, and jackhammering.

Socially-Produced Noise

This refers to noise originating from something under the control or authority of someone besides us; it is generally the kind or class of noise that causes us pain, discomfort, and stress. In fact, most of the noise sources listed above constitute socially-produced noise. If our steam or water pipes make a loud banging sound in the middle of the night, we as the homeowner have the power to eliminate or ameliorate the noise, by repairing the pipes, sound insulating them, or arranging for installation of a new heating system. However, if our noise irritant originates in neighborhood leafblower use or basketball playing within the vicinity of our home, our ability to reduce or eliminate the noise now depends on the cooperation of someone else. Likewise if our banging steam pipes occur in a home that we live in, but don't own, and hence do not control. Unfortunately, the egocentrism that capitalism creates and reinforces often eviscerates such cooperation. The result is two forms of pain:  that from the irritating noise, and anger over the lack of cooperation.

Root Cause of Noise

To really understand the problem of noise, we must understand the social and especially the economic environment under which noise so readily and ubiquitously occurs. That economic environment is that of capitalism, the economic system under which we live; it is the normal operation of capitalism that creates, and/or exacerbates, essentially every problem that humanity faces, including the problem of noise. Capitalism is an economic system whereby a tiny class of owners, a "ruling class," control all of industry for their profit interests. Concerns for health, safety, and welfare of the population is, and indeed must be, of merely secondary or even tertiary importance.

The root cause of noise, without question, is capitalism, the profit system, itself, because it focuses on profit, money, and commerce, NOT the preservation of human health or our physical environment. Already, for example, years of disregard for the environment for the sake of maximizing profit appears to have caused a global warming problem that by all accounts may be unstoppable.

In fact, all objectionable noise is caused either by capitalism itself, in the form of commercial activity undertaken for profit, and/or by the egocentric *culture* generated by capitalism, in the form of thoughtless disregard of noisemaking persons for their neighbors.

Noise under capitalism occurs for the same two reasons that all other problems occur: 1.) profit is being generated by the activities that generate noise, and 2.) people are insensitive to the discomfort of others; some of those people are those sponsoring the aforementioned commercial activties. The profit being generated disposes companies and business owners toward the kind of insensitivity required to ignore the noise-induced discomfort of others. This is one of the ways that the normal operation of capitalism defines the ethical environment of society generally.

Indeed, one will search the United States Constitution and Declaration of Independence from front to back in vain if searching for any phrase, clause, idea, or principal denoting love of neighbor.

Analysis of Particular Sources of Noise

1. Construction. Driven by the continual need to sell, companies frequently expand, and such expansion often involves destruction of old or unwanted buildings and supportin infrastructure and erection and construction of new buildings and infrastructure. This monumental process is interminable, occurring every minute of every day all over the planet--and it's a very noisy process. Such activity typically involves use of noisy equipment like jackhammers, and earth moving vehicles.

2. Leafblowers.

3. Truck and car traffic.

4. Overhead aircraft.

5. Boom cars.

6. Car Alarms.

7. Overly loud stereo equipment whether mobile or stationary.

8. Aggressive sports play such as involving loud, hard, or frequent basketball dribbling.

9. Modified motorcycle exhaust.

10. Wood chippers.

11. Noisy music clubs or nightclubs.

12. Vehicle horns.

13. Revving vehicle engines.

14. Backup warning tones from commercial and municipal vehicles.

15. Power generation, air conditioning, concrete cutting, jackhammering, and other activities or proceses utilizing outdoor equipment.

Noise under capitalism is generated for the same two reasons that capitalism generates every other human problem: 1.) the ruling class , and 2.) under the egocentric culture that capitalism generates, and that necessarily accompanies capitalism, people are insensitive to the needs of others.

The particular products and services that companies develop, manufacture, and market, and the particular characteristics of each product and service are no accident: they are deliberately engineered to produce and indeed maximize profit, either by attempting to decrease costs, or make the product better appeal to the consumer.

Driven by the interminable need to sell, manufacturers continually develop new products and services, and create novel twists on old products and services, in order to generate and maintain interest in their products and services. Thus do we see, for example, as documented by activist Jeanine Botta, increased utilization of automobile horn noise in a wider variety of automotive products:

This is why the vehicular sounds that Ms. Botta seeks to eliminate, are engineered into vehicles: they are perceived to increase profit and thus benefit the ruling class in one or more ways. I'm unfamiliar with this issue and so can't communicate exactly how such sounds contribute to profit, but it is likely because they form part of a new generation of convenience features for car buyers, thus making one manufucatruers cars seem more appealing to consumers, without spending the money required to create silent or otherwise less obtrusive sounds or alarm systems.The ruling class possesses the final power in global culture, and indeed all of global society is structured, formally and informally, to support them and the system of capitalism that benefits them so richly. Thus, Ms. Botta's endeavor, and all efforts to assist the great mass of people, whether by bringing relief from a harm or the provision of a benefit, will necessarily be an uphill battle, and one that will never really be fully settled. Yet we must do what we can, while concomitantly working toward eliminating its root cause, capitalism.

In a further example, do you know how much profit Toro and other manufacturers of leafblowers and other noisy lawn equipment earned in the United States alone, last year?

To work on one aspect of the noise problem while ignoring all the others is foolhardy, for injurious noise will remain with us as long as capitalism does. Yet to begin to survey and acknowledge the wide scope of this problem, is to begin to question why in its many manifestations it exists in the first place--what is its root? What is the root of extraneous and injurious noise? Now this is the right question, the most powerful question that we can ask. And to ask it, is to answer it: capitalism.

You might as well join the effort now, for not only are the ill-effects of capitalism going to dog you for your entire life, in fact they are already dogging you; indeed capitalism will and already has defined the very nature of your existence. How many of the precious finite moments that comprise this thing called "your life" have already been diverted to work, in order, ultimately, to further enrich the capitalist class?

In short, the problem of undue noise and its attendant adverse health effects simply represents one of the many problems caused by the normal operation of capitalism, especially in concert with the culture of egocentrism that capitalism generates, which in turn reinforces capitalism. The only real answer the abolition of capitalism, replaced by a directly democratic, needs-based, moneyless, for-use, love-assisted "cooperative society."

The ruling class possesses the final power in global culture, and indeed all of global society is structured, formally and informally, to support them and the system of capitalism that benefits them so richly. Thus, Ms. Botta's endeavor, and all efforts to assist the great mass of people, whether by bringing relief from a harm or the provision of a benefit, will necessarily be an uphill battle, and one that will never really be fully settled. Yet we must do what we can, while concomitantly working toward eliminating its root cause, capitalism.

The Noise Control Act of 1972

In the United States, The Noise Control Act of 1972 was the legislation that established the Office of Noise Abatement and Control, to protect citizens from undue noise. However, this act was left to die as the Reagan administration ended its funding, and no one save a few well-meaning anti-noise organizations, one of which this author is a member of, are making any serious effort to restore funding for the act. Such action constitutes an uphill battle, anyway, since industry has no interest in protecting the hearing or well-being of the population, especially given that such concern will inevitably cost it money. Remember, part of the normal operation of capitalism is the twin compulsion to 1.) keep costs as low as possible, and 2.) sell as much as possible.

Moreover, even if the act is enforced, One Human Family has no serious expectation that its provisions would ever be strong and comprehensive enough to fully and properly protect citizens from all forms of objectionable noise, since such wide protections, again, would cost industry money in the form of expenditure for new technologies required, and lost business as a cutback in commercial activity is likely mandated as a necessary part of the solution. For example, if the landscape industry finds its hours of operation curtailed so that leafblowers and lawnmowers cannot be used before, say, noon, it will howl long and loud about its lost business--and in fact it would probably be right. This is one of the many contradictions of the profit system, under which what's good for business is so much of the time bad for people. Capitalism means anarchy in the economy and thus in the larger society.

The legislative and social landscape of the United States and indeed many other capitalist countries is littered with the detritus of the good intentions of reformers, torn to shreds as legislation and the other products of these intentions became caught on the jagged reefs of the power, especially the power to obstruct, of the ruling and owning class, and its partner our capitalist government. Whether Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, both politicians stand unequivocally for capitalism.

Were that this not so, but it is. Thus, the only real solution to the horrible problem of noise remains the exact same solution required to fully and permanently solve every other problem of capitalism, all of which are intractable under capitalism: establishment of a needs-oriented, love-assisted, Cooperative system, where money, profit, egocentrism and their manifold pernicious effects, consequences, and ramifications for person and planet are happily absent.

The Alternative

Please learn more about the Cooperative alternative, and join with me in the slow but critical task of persuading others of its necessity. Then, and only then, when the root cause of noise and indeed every other problem is removed, can we live in a truly safe, healthy, peaceful, and loving world.

Upon scrutiny, one realizes in fact that every problem humanity faces is directly or indirectly caused by the normal operation of the profit system. I and others accordingly recommend a sharp transition from the profit system, to an as-yet-untried "Cooperative" system, where economic activity is safe and healthy and serves human need, not the accumulation of profit of the owning class. And where the love ethic, or brotherly love, underpins our relations and relationships with each other.

In short, the problem of undue noise and its attendant adverse health effects simply represents one of the many problems caused by the normal operation of capitalism, especially in concert with the culture of egocentrism that capitalism generates, which in turn reinforces capitalism. The only real answer is the abolition of capitalism, replaced by a directly democratic, needs-based, moneyless, for-use, love-assisted "cooperative society."

Further content and revision pending.