Silent Victory
At times the transistor seems the most undesir- able of all science's offerings. Any moron with a small radio can effortlessly inflict unwanted din upon scores or even hundreds of victims. Radio noise has a fearful carrying-power : •and a de- pressingly large number of people don't care whether the intrusion is welcome to their neigh- bours or not. Another group, possibly even more depressing to contemplate, are evidently unaware that anyone could fail to derive pleasure from a permanent background of radio noise. Perhaps in another generation or two their assumption will be right, and everyone, through conditioning from the earliest age, will live happily in a permanent envelope of reproduced music. Mean- while those who like to choose when and where they listen to music—and even which music they listen to—must defend themselves as they can. I congratulate the people whose protests have this week produced an edict forbidding the use of radios in London's Royal Parks. This summer it has hardly been possible to get out of range of a radio in some of these places. The habit of making radio noise in railway carriages is also apparently on the increase. It may not be widely enough known that the traveller is already armed against this. The regulations forbid the use of radios (along with singing and playing musical instru- ments) if it causes 'annoyance' to any travellers. Clearly one has to assess the situation before complaining to the culprit; it might be prudent to suffer silently on one of those Liverpool football trains. And, of course, the kind of party which is singing and playing musical instruments might be rather jolly travelling companions.
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