Restaurant Noise

Today, hrdefender had lunch in the restaurant on the ground floor of Building A in the Chaeng Wattana Government complex. The food was excellent at a most reasonable price. Problem was the noise. The ambient noise at lunchtime measured 75 db, already far exceeding the 55 db recommended for restaurant noise. 55 db is the level where relaxed conversation is possible and thus too much to ask of a huge cafeteria. But the problem of the Building A ground floor restaurant was the awful scraping of chairs on a tiled floor. Everyone using the restaurant dragged out their chair, sat down, and dragged it in again, completely oblivious of the noise grenade launched in the whole resonating area. The noise meter surged to 82 or more decibels with every such noise event. This is a fourfold increase of noise power. Every chair gave out a different raucous tone, leading to a cacophony of squeaks and shrill wails which would enervate an angel. It seemed to have no effect on the lunching masses, but must contribute to the noxious role of persistent noise on all of us.  We can become oblivious to a constant noise source, a fan or air conditioner. We can even come to ignore a recurrent sound, a bell or passing train. But random noise escapes all deadening of perception.
The solutions are easy. Lift one's chair rather than dragging it. Or, put a cheap rubber cap on each leg of the chair. Neither will happen unless we train children to be attentive to simple noise limiting habits, or invest in the cheap technology of noise limitation. Unless we complain loudly and noisily Else, we go insane in an ever noise indifferent culture.