For anyone interested in noise issues, the scenario is depressingly familiar: a bunch of guys whooping it up late into the night, their music blaring, never giving the neighbors a moment’s thought. One of their neighbors finally decides he’s had enough and calls the police. The party-makers retaliate by damaging the neighbor’s fence and dousing the front steps with motor oil, trying to set it ablaze.
It’s a typical formula: selfish noisemaking, exasperated neighbors, stupid retaliation.
But in this case, in Eau Claire, Wis., the outcome takes a surprising—and satisfying—twist. The noisemakers are caught, charged, and convicted, and the judge sentences the chief perpetrator to four months in jail, two years of probation, and forced abstinence from alcohol. He’s also prohibited from having any contact with the neighbor and slapped with a $2,269 fine.
Finally, a judge that gets it. “The intimidation of the victims is the aspect of this that bothers me the most,” the judge said. “There was retaliation here.”
For anti-noise activists, it seems like each day selfish people are given yet another way to impose themselves on others. If’s it’s not ultra-powerful stereos in their cars it’s ultra powerful stereos in their homes. If it’s not TV in their backyards its custom pipes on their motorcycles. Thanks to our consumer culture, the innovators whose ideas line our store shelves are tripping over themselves to get a market edge by giving us the loudest this, the most aggressive that. It’s all about the consumer and selfishness. What that eventually translates into is a sense that it’s all about us and any attempt to make us consider other people is an infringement on our freedom. After all, if we’re not supposed to impose our noise on others, why are we given these products?
This is ludicrous, of course. Freedom isn’t about being able to do whatever you want; it’s about self-governance. License is the idea that we can do whatever we want. Self-governance is the idea that we are each our own sovereign, and thus not only are we each entitled to respect but we also owe respect to one another. To impose your noise on others is to act as if you’re somehow more sovereign than others.
What’s so heartening about the outcome in this case is that the judge sees clearly that license is getting out of control, and what’s needed is a renewed focus on self-governance. Tomorrow there will be another case in which one person imposes himself on another, but today at least we can take satisfaction that not every selfish person rules the day.
#1 by Eamon - August 11th, 2009 at 23:34
Alright, well you can add me to the list of people who think that muffler whistles and subwoofers loud enough to make the car vibrate are annoying, but “a judge that gets it?” The whole point of the harsh sentence is because the kids were trying to light a porch on fire…not because of some pretentious viewpoint on imposing noise-levels.