> “Telling people to be quiet is not a good thing,” he says. “Part of the charge to us as human beings in the world is to listen to other people, right? Especially if they are suffering. Especially if they are crying out to us for help. If our expectations are ‘I should not have to hear anything,’ and I can convince myself that the right way to live in the world is to live in this acoustically tailored environment, then I don’t have to hear all that stuff. . . .
I think the writer here is confused, they very likely mean 'listen' in the metaphorical sense not the literal sense, since it's obvious there are real world scenarios where it's physically damaging to actually listen.
But if they mean 'listen' in the metaphorical sense, as in perceiving another's mental thoughts through any medium, then the noise levels of everyday environments has little to nothing to do with it.
I think the writer here is confused, they very likely mean 'listen' in the metaphorical sense not the literal sense, since it's obvious there are real world scenarios where it's physically damaging to actually listen.
But if they mean 'listen' in the metaphorical sense, as in perceiving another's mental thoughts through any medium, then the noise levels of everyday environments has little to nothing to do with it.