Noise and Democracy

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 150, 21 March 1931, Page 22

Noise and Democracy

THE author of “A Realist Looks nt Democracy," by Alderton PinkIs presumably a young man (says "l , nblle Opinion"), for the younger generation prides itself on looking facts frankly in the I’liee'aiid seeing the worst, of them, and that is what Mr. Pink does in this book. With much plausibility Mr. Pink argues that education eminot make wise citizens out of children without Intellectual capacity i that for purposes of government the opinion of forty million foolish people is worth no more than the opinion of.one foolish person, and that the ideal government is aa nutocriic.v of intellect. One of the most brilliant of'the younger writers of to-day, Mr. Aldous Huxley, dots the "i’s" and crosses the “t’s" of Mr, Pink’s argument hi a provocative preface. He calls it a “rather depressing, because truthful book” "Ours is the noisiest age in nil history,” Mr, Huxley adds. "Not only is our work on the whole much noisier lhan the labour of past ages;

our leisure is also noisier—noisier in the aggregate because there Is mori leisure now than in the past; and noisier in detail and at any given moment because our noise-making instruments are. so much more numerous and efficient than the crude songs and cymbals ami buU-rvarers of the post. it is literally possible for noise to be so loud that one cannot hear oneself think. "Now the end and aim of nil amusement is to kill thought; therefore noise is an essential part of amusement. And the more leisure men have nml, consequently, the greater their need of thought-preventing amusement, the more noise will have to bo made. “ The progress of noise during the lust fifteen years has been spectacular. . . , But however willing the jazz-loving spirit, the flesh is weak. A point is reached after which noise gives diminishing returns in thought-killing pleasure and produces instead disturbing pathological symptoms. However unacceptable the arguments may be, it is clear that ui (his book two young men who have read, thought and pondered, have given a considered opinion of democracy which the older generation cannot ignore.