Ear plugs can not only protect your ears, but also your peace of mind as well! To be sure, a great number of folks actually enjoy a riot. But a significant number of people also need real peace and quiet — even in the city?

You get ear plugs, that’s all! Inexpensive, they’re practically free when compared to what you get, some peace of mind. And oftentimes for city-dwellers neighbors are simply on the other side of a piece of drywall, even when they’re not roomies!

So that’s when ear plugs can help. They should be helpful to some degree, if not a perfect final solution. That’s because the ones you’re likely to find are only good for blocking up to 33 dcB of noise, which is about the level of a typical conversation. For something stronger, specialty models are necessary, but these are nowhere near as easily found on the marketplace.

No matter how effective, however, wearing them all the time may be uncomfortable. Though many do get used to them, many also find them uncomfortable. Ultimately, no one should have to live with noise pollution in the first place. But hardly anyone anywhere believes noise pollution to be a serious isse, one warranting official action. Believe it or not, even the city with the toughest noise pollution laws in the country, New York, treats the matter seriously enough. And ironically, the one greatest source of noise complaints, that between neighbors, is precisely what civic involvement tends to shy away from!

Jean-Paul Sartre famously remarked that “hell is other people;” this may explain whyThe Big Apple is so reluctant to intervene between warring neighbors, which is but hell multiplied exponentially! But what do the laws on the books do, then? And what else does a call to 311 offer besides a chance to gripe to someone?

It seems like most people don’t mind noise. That’s the sad truth, in the final analysis: most folks just don’t mind it. That’s why it goes on. Mental sanity is not something that’s highly valued; indeed, not many know what true sanity is nor how noise plays an important part in preventing it!