Ear plugs do more than just protect your hearing; they will protect your very sanity! Naturally, there are those who don’t mind noise and commotion. But a significant number of people also need real peace and quiet — even in the city?

You get ear plugs, that’s all! They make a great bargain considering what you get: a measure of tranquility. 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 come in. 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. Naturally, no noise at all is preferrable. Good luck getting anyone in government to care, however. 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!

“Hell is other people,” noted the French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, and municipal authorities in Gotham are loathe to intercede between neighbors. So what, then, does their vaunted noise pollution laws actually do? And what else does a call to 311 offer besides a chance to gripe to someone?

Well, enough people tolerate noise well enough such that it isn’t much of a problem. That’s the sad truth, in the final analysis: most folks just don’t mind it. Hence, some things will never change. 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!