Why So Loud?: The Youth Culture
of Escapism
GrassTopsUSA Exclusive Commentary
By Gennady Stolyarov II
05-08-07
I recently
attended a college-sponsored end-of-the-semester outdoor celebration
with several friends. Good food was served in a large tent, and we
looked forward to sitting down at one of the tables, where we could
have a leisurely conversation—perhaps about final exams, perhaps
about politics or philosophy, perhaps about favored hobbies and
future plans. The college had hired a group of outside entertainers
to provide background music—supposedly.
Right after we
sat down, the musicians began to play a rock melody. The song was
not offensive or in itself objectionable; in fact, it was far milder
than most of what passes for popular culture today. We would not
have minded its performance, had it not been for the thundering,
almost deafening volume. Enormous amplifiers on the stage made the
music many times louder than the musicians’ guitars by themselves
could—even though the natural sound of the guitars by itself would
have enabled everybody to hear the melody quite well. As a result,
two people sitting next to each other could not hear a single word
the other would say—even if the other person tried to scream. To be
sure, our attempts at a conversation were irrevocably foiled. Even
when we were on our way out—beyond the walls of the tent—the music’s
volume level was still above the threshold of comfort.
This
experience, taken by itself, was a rather minor nuisance that led to
a slight adjustment of plans. But it was also a small example of a
massive, widespread, and disturbing cultural phenomenon among many
of today’s youth. It led me to think about more extreme
manifestations of the same tendency—and the kinds of attitudes
toward life that they reveal.
There is
nothing wrong with lively music—provided that it is decent and
respectful—but why does it need to be played so loudly, at a volume
that prevents any normal human communication from occurring? In such
an atmosphere, people cannot partake in everyday conversation: they
cannot exchange ideas or share experiences or build friendships.
Having to scream all the time gets tiring, so most give up right
after the music starts to play. Meaningful interpersonal dialogue is
thwarted, but so is individual contemplation and reflection. Here
are the kinds of questions that a person cannot pose to himself when
he encounters such deafening noise: “What would be the best use of
my time?”; “Where am I headed in life, and where do I want to be?”;
“What can I do to improve my own life and the lives of others?”;
“What is there about the world that I can explore and discover?”
And yet the
music gets played at this volume presumably because most young
people in the audience enjoy it and would consider any lower volume
to be passé or uninteresting. The loudness is not an isolated
occurrence that meets widespread disapproval. Quite the contrary, it
is most often enthusiastically embraced by those exposed to it.
That is the most frightening part of it: many of today’s youths
do not want to think or to reflect or to make meaningful
interpersonal connections.
So many adages
in today’s popular youth culture reinforce this perverse desire.
Young people are encouraged to “lose themselves,” to “just let go,”
to “just relax and have fun”—in other words, to be freed from
purpose or meaning or direction—indeed, to relinquish their
individuality entirely. Joining a thousand-person crowd, springing
up to one’s feet, and becoming lost in the amorphous, tumultuous
mass—wriggling, bending, and writhing with everybody else in a
congested space, while having one’s sense of hearing dulled by a
level of volume that no everyday experience can replicate—that is
considered the pinnacle of pleasure and entertainment by many. In
numerous cases, this is combined with horrendous dissonance, obscene
bodily movements, and lyrics that glorify rape, murder, and
desecration of all that is good and beautiful. The popular “gangsta
rappers” take pride in demeaning young women as mere objects of
sexual lust and violation, insulting them with dirty expressions and
actually thereby winning the approval of many young women
today. As a result, many fashions for teenage girls in recent years
would have made prostitutes blush in an earlier era—while
conscientious and modest young women have ever-increasing difficulty
finding a style that they can wear without shame.
But even when
the lyrics are decent and the melody is harmonious, the sheer volume
prevents any serious thought or interaction and inhibits any
manifestation of one’s true self—a self that differs in crucial
respects from the thousands of others in the vicinity. Such an
environment gives an individual only two choices: to conform to the
lowest common denominator of the crowd in every respect, or—if he
can manage to maneuver his way out—to leave.
Of course, the
inability to think, reflect, or meaningfully communicate stunts
personal development and inhibits the growth of prudence and moral
character. This is why so many teenagers today engage in truly
imbecile acts of risk-taking—where they put their life on the line
to get a second’s thrill or prove their…. (they do not quite know
what) to their peers. This is why many of them do not have the
rudiments of a work ethic, skill set, ambition, or knowledge base.
This is why so many of them develop an unwarrantedly gloomy,
hopeless, and perverse view of the world—even though their material
circumstances are among the best in all times and places in history.
Instead of spending their leisure constructively by learning
more about themselves and the world and building genuine, lasting,
content-filled friendships, many of today’s youths prefer to escape
to a world of destructive savage exhortations, thoughtless
movement, and mind-dulling, directionless intensity. This they
consider entertainment, but it is only a veil over their eyes to
shield them from the reality they do not want to face and to allow
them to stumble about in blind stupor and fall in the dirt as much
as they like.
For a
reasonable, decent, successful person, entertainment is a part of
life—but it is not the center of it, and the desirable forms of
entertainment are sufficiently mild as to be within the range of
everyday human comfort. An occasional dose of entertainment can
rejuvenate one’s energies and—if it is especially good, like a
quality book, play, or musical composition—stimulate some thought.
But entertainment ought to never substitute for the genuinely
meaningful things in life. Moving to the same tune does not build
lasting friendships, but discussing meaningful ideas and experiences
for an hour often does. Thinking, working, interacting with people
on the level of civilized persons—not primordial savages—are what
the good life is made of. It is imperative that as many people as
possible begin to set a personal example by putting entertainment
back in its proper place in their own lives. Hopefully, one day in
the not-too-distant future, when performers try to deafen their
audiences, the majority of the people will look at them with raised
eyebrows and calmly ask, “Why so loud?”
Gennady Stolyarov II is
Editor-in-Chief of
The Rational Argumentator, a magazine championing the principles
or Reason, Rights, and Progress. His works have been published by
Le Quebecois Libre,
Enter Stage Right Magazine, the
Ludwig von Mises Institute,
Rebirth of Reason, and other organizations. Mr. Stolyarov can be
contacted at
gennadystolyarovii@yahoo.com.
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GrasstopsUSA.com 2007
