Published on 12, July, 2020
It now seems that it's pretty standard practice for buskers to use amplifiers. Who has decided that this is acceptable?
The volume of these things is always uncormfortably high for people like me with hypersensitive hearing. Even normal people seem to need to stand back from them, causing a secondary problem of significnatly increasing the space taken up by the activity.
I used to make a point of givinga few quid to a decent busker. Some of them really used to make places nicer to be - the woman who was always in the tunnel at South Ken station during the late nineties when I was at uni was particular good. But now, regardless of how skillful they are or how good the music is, they are making the world a worse place.
Similarly, it now seems acceptable for people with smart phones to play music without earphones - on the bus, on the train, in the street. And people rarely remonstrate because of fear of the possible consequences. If someone is so arrogant, selfish and insensitive as to subject everyone around them to their crappy teen pop or hip-hop, then telling them to turn it down won't cut much ice - and might just get you a visit to A & E.
People playing music out of car windows too >> Incidentally I have never heard good music coming out of a car window or a mobile phone in a public place. I think it's just such an inherently tacky thing to do that the offenders' taste in music naturally reflects that. ;)AND don't get me started on those pathetic "look at me" super-noisy exhausts. An exercise in vanity that serves no purpose but to damage the ears of bystanders.
I think all this comes from society not having any 'rite of passage' to indicate acceptance into being a grown-up. Years ago, young men (girls too) would have to prove themselves to the village by undertaking something measurable to prove their strength of character. Nowadays, the only thing that kids can be noticed for making an impact on their immediate environment is vandalism, graffiti & noise polution.
I'm lucky, I'm a big, imposing bloke so when I give people my 'Paddington Stare' or I tell them straight, it's usually enough for them to think twice about their actions.
There was a case a few years back of a boxer - a huge guy, but known as a gentle giant outside the ring - who approached someone in a pub and politely asked them to put their cigarette out. As he walked back to his table, the smoker attacked him with a knife and stabbed him to death. I've been trying to find the news item on it, but can't. You may remember it.
Possibly James Oyebola, 2007? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7656620.stm
Father-of-three Mr Oyebola asked a group in a "perfectly pleasant way" to extinguish their cigarettes in the club's garden area, which counted as enclosed premises because it had a roof, the court heard.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/jul/30/guardianobituaries.boxing
Haha, with me the phrase "beware the nice ones" has come up on a couple of occasions!
When I lose the plot, I've been told by people afterwards 'Blimey... you're a dark horse!'
Doesn't always work. I'm 6' 5" and not exactly a 98lb weakling. I can appear quite intimidating, so I'm told. But I think it has more to do with mindset. One of the scariest people I ever met was a shrimp of a guy. But there was something in the way he would look at you that you knew you wouldn't mess with him (and this from someone who doesn't read people very well!) As my dad used to say: It's not the man in the fight. It's the fight in the man. I've often thought that I would try calling someone's bluff. Like the bloke a while back who cut me up in traffic while I was on my bike. I shouted at him and he heard me - so stopped his car and shouted back 'Do you want me to get out of this car and settle it properly?' I often wonder how he would have reacted if I'd tossed my bike aside and walked towards him with 'Yes, mate... gladly.' How many threats like that are simply threats, and how many would carry them through? The unknown...