International Noise Awareness Day | The Quiet Seller

Every day is a different day of remembrance, celebration, appreciation, and calling for attention. The United Nations proclaimed the first World Day on October 31, 1947. There are now more than one hundred such World Days, intended to commemorate global issues: social justice, women's rights, hearing, poetry, and glaciers.

May 28th is International Women's Health Day. May 25th is International Towel Day, which commemorates the author Douglas Adams. May 22nd is International Day for Biodiversity Conservation. May 9th is Europe Day, which commemorates what the EU has achieved in 75 years. May 8th commemorates the liberation of Nazi prisoners from concentration camps and prisons. May 3rd is World Fish Sandwich Day and International Press Freedom Day. In Germany, May 3rd this year was also Earth Overshoot Day. It fell slightly later than last year because consumption had decreased slightly.

It is highlighted as a special day because from this day on, people in Germany begin to live beyond their means ecologically. If everyone consumed as many natural resources and emitted as much CO₂ as we do here, humanity would need almost three Earths. May 2nd celebrates World Tuna Day, the baby, and the International Day of Unemployment. May 1st is Labor Day. April 30th is dedicated to jazz; April 26th is Intellectual Property Day. And so on and so forth.

Throughout the year, there are many curious and serious commemorative days every day. They are intended to mobilize public attention for a cause, focus attention on a problem, and create understanding. How is that supposed to work? It is a self-contradictory project. For precisely because each day of the year is highlighted and is supposed to stand for something special, the days fade into monotony. They become a series, a cultural-industrial sequence of events. What is currently being highlighted and seems important is already over tomorrow; and with the new day, the next important or unimportant topic becomes the headline. But actually, many of these days should really be taken seriously, and beyond the day itself.

Remembering the liberation of people from a life-destroying existence in camps is important – especially because there are so many who deny the existence of the camps, the historical facts, and thus threaten to repeat it; who behave indifferently or approvingly towards such dynamics of violence. In view of right-wing violence and the reckless (non-)prosecution by the police and courts, it is easy to imagine that there could be a return to rampant torture chambers and murders. Highlighting Earth Overshoot Day somehow already contains a contradiction. The idea is to draw attention to the insufficient consumption in Germany. But what about the next day? Every subsequent day is actually a day that represents the continuation of the disaster and the continuation of excessive consumption.

I was particularly excited about one recent holiday. I didn't even know it existed. I'm referring to April 28th, International Noise Awareness Day.

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In the plurality of these days, everyone can pick their favorite anniversaries and celebrate them. What seems important today is already gone tomorrow. Perhaps to avoid this rapid change and wear and tear of remembrance, there are also remembrance weeks: May 25th marks the beginning of the week commemorating the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples. Like so many other remembrance days, this is a source of irritation: Was independence really "granted"? Wasn't it fought for by many who opposed colonialism? Wasn't the so-called dependence itself an outrage? Isn't even the mention of colonial countries an impertinence?

I was particularly pleased about one recent commemoration day. I didn't know it existed, just as I didn't know about many of the other days. I'm referring to April 28th, International Noise Awareness Day. When I read that such a day exists, I remembered that many years ago I had heard a radio play by Heinrich Böll about a salesman who went door to door selling peace and quiet. It was an absurd idea: if peace and quiet were a commodity, the world could perhaps become quieter. Locations would then be made fit for the competition for more peace and quiet, taxes would be lowered to create more peace and quiet. Cities would be planned differently to achieve a higher quality of life. Wars couldn't be fought because they were too loud with all their tanks and planes. Of course, there are other reasons for refraining from military activity. But noise can also be a reason. After all, noise causes illness, irritates the nerves, increases heart rate, damages the ears, makes conversation in a café difficult, and disrupts everyday life at home or on the street. In the end, noise kills – hundreds and thousands every year.

It's annoying when neighbors turn up the music at night, when someone in the quiet carriage of an ICE train suddenly starts talking loudly on their cell phone about what they achieved in a business negotiation. Above all, it's the traffic noise that's inescapable. One of the hopes pinned on e-mobility will be dashed for decades to come: that the vehicles will move quietly through cities. Widely practiced petro-masculinity doesn't just refer to men who absolutely need a combustion engine in their car, but also to those who threaten with acoustic violence by driving highly tuned cars to create noise: with roaring, rattling, re-igniting engines.

A speed reduction and traffic control with noise cameras would help. But not for those who are victims of a particular pastime: car racing on urban streets or excursions into mountainous terrain with winding roads. Manufacturers finance such multi-day motorcycle tours for large groups of men through the mountains for advertising purposes. In recent years, initiatives to combat noise pollution caused by bikers have emerged in many places in the low mountain ranges and the Alps.

Peace is unevenly distributed. Socially, of course, but also politically. When people protest in the streets, a loud police force arrives to maintain peace and order with a massive deployment of vehicles and aircraft. Even decades after Heinrich Böll, we are still waiting for things to calm down. The world is not only too bright, it is also too loud. Peace also has this reconciliatory aspect of calm.