"Certainly a musician should have the right to play at whatever sound level he feels suits his music."
Exactly my point.... There's a time for loud, and a time for not so loud...

"They fill the room with noise to fill the vacuum in their brains."
My, what an arrogant, elitist attitude you seem to have...

"The younger people seem to thrive on it"
Your old world is rapidly ageing
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times...

"The constant need of being plugged into a cell phone and for portable video games or a blasting Walkman to isolate them from their surroundings are additional symptoms."
Why is it not rather, that they make the CHOICE to adapt their surroundings to suit their own tastes? Maybe if our (their) surroundings weren't full of obsolete, cranky old twits afraid of change, trying to tell them what they should and shouldn't do all the time, they'd be more willing to participate...

Some of you folks come off as the most cliché of "Old People" stereotypes... do you wear your slippers to the mall too?