I fully support Adam Trimingham's piece about noise (Argus, May 24).

Each year seems to bring more and louder noise. The pubs and clubs get louder, the car stereos get louder and the radio blare in shops more insistent. It becomes ever harder to enjoy any peace and quiet. One is often made to feel anti-social even for wanting the occasional peace and quiet. It's all part of modern society's culture of hedonist self-indulgence.

In the post-war decades, we were brought up to put respect for other people before our own pleasure. When caught doing wrong, our mitigation was that our deeds "hadn't done anyone any harm". Nowadays, in contrast, people seem to be brought up to put their own pleasure before consideration for others. Ravers, who have damaged fields and kept whole communities awake all night, argue in mitigation that "all we were doing was having a good time".

The old mores may have resulted in repression of self-expression but the new mores result in the loutishness and insensitivity we encounter every day. We've gone from one extreme to the other. What society needs is balance somewhere near the middle.

-Bryan Childers, Marine Parade, Brighton