I’m sure there have been books and articles written on this subject, but I haven’t read one: Communism and noise. Or tyranny in general and noise. Let me explain myself.
I’ll start by quoting from my column today, which is the final installment of a “Macedonia Journal.” I’m talking about a May Day rally in the country’s capital:
Skopje shakes with the noise of the Left. It is deafening, as always. People blow non-stop on whistles, for no apparent reason. Intimidation? And they bellow through bullhorns.
The crowd is now chanting something. I ask a friend, “What are they chanting?” He answers, “It’s ‘No justice, no peace.’” Really? Just like Sharpton & Co.? I feel right at home.
In a Communist country, you suffer many indignities, and worse. But I was struck, many years ago, by a complaint of Vietnamese people. They had many, many things to complain about, of course. But I often heard about the loudspeakers.
Hour after hour, the government screamed its propaganda through loudspeakers. There was no escaping this. The noise “invaded your space,” battering you, all the time.
I suppose the answer is that Communism, and all totalitarianism, is violative of the private sphere. They won’t let you think. They won’t let peace reign (except on their terms).
Why did those leftists in Skopje on May Day blow on those whistles, non-stop? Why did they want to fill the air with that shrieking? Why did those unionists in Madison, Wis., bang on drums all the time?
Because they could, I suppose. It’s their way of saying, “I am Lord. I own you, or will own you.”
“And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.” That is heavenly indeed: silence, even for as little as a half-hour.