Donald Clarke replies to Jon Gallant replying to Donald:

>>> At the same time that some Americans believe that playing Mozart
>>> at babies makes them smarter, it will not occur to them that playing
>>> garbage at everybody all the time makes them stupider.
>>
>>I think here Donald may have uncovered the secret of US political life.
>
><GASP> You mean...behind the supermarket tabloids and the reality TV and
>the ubiquitous moozak might be the hand of <CHOKE> ...Karl Rove??  By
>George, I never thought of that.

They're VERY clever.

The motto:

"Keep 'em stupid."

In all seriousness, people often learn things through conversing with
others.  Loud music in restaurants, etc.  works to make conversation
very difficult.  At sporting events, it must retard all but emotional
reactions.  It takes up space in the braing.  What it is supposed to do
in the workplace, I'm not sure, but it does help squash thinking.  For
example, I'm very interested in the quality of literary translations,
and like to go to bookstores to compare them.  Try that, with piped in
music raining down overheat.  Not easy.

Silence is necessary in human life.  It's required for thought, reasoning,
consideration.  Bombarding people with endless noise, makes it very hard
for people to do much of anything except go numb, in terms of cognitive
thinking.  At the very least it reduces the effectiveness of thinking.
At least, so it seems to me.  In a way, the noise becomes an addiction,
with all that implies.

Roger Hecht

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