Classic Crime Story

In the local underground station they play classical music at high volume all the time. This is to discourage vagabonds, cut-purses and other lowlifes from loitering, and it seems to work in that respect. Now why would classical music do that? I have to resist the temptation to google it at this point. I will instead put down my own thoughts on the matter, and see whether they give me any insight.

I like walking descending the escalator accompanied by operatic strains. Emerging into the lobby to Wagner is exhilarating, like the smell of napalm in the morning. But clearly some people find it uncomfortable, and do not ply their dodgy trades there any more. Instead they gather at the top of the stairs. The two types of ticket touts in clusters: the straggly homeless travelcard pushers, becoming rarer with the Oystercard onslaught, and on Academy nights, the thickset cockneys offering to "buy or sell tickets" for whatever band is playing.

Is it really the music that has forced this exodus? Perhaps there's another reason. The police have been cracking down on the hassling of people in the station, but I haven't recently seen a lot of police there, and yet the ruffians still stay away. There are also a lot of CCTV cameras, of course, but there are at the top of the stairs too. So it seems as though the music really works.

It reminds me of a couple of slightly dodgy friends of mine, who, when I met up with them, complained about how brightly lit the pub was (it wasn't very). It made them so uncomfortable that they wouldn't go there again. In this case one could apply a bit of amateur psychology and speculate that they did not like to see themselves. They were, indeed, quite bedraggled and confused creatures, and having the spotlight turned on them may have mirrored to them their guilt, shiftiness, or doubt about themselves.

The Shambhala teachings talk about cocoon, as a state of mind. You desire to protect your personal comfort, and spend a long time building a reassuringly warm, dark slightly stinky cocoon to shelter you from the brightness of the world. This might include various things, from in a literal sense making your home cozy and insulated, to choosing friends who are fine playing along with your own self-deception, to.. well, avoiding brightly lit pubs, where you might see the filth on your clothes, and others might too. Ultimately though, cocoon is an inhibiting state, preventing you from seeing the world in all it's glory!

Things that intrude on our cocoon might also include rousing classical music.
Or perhaps the staff just like it!