Stepping into the unknown

It's both strange and illuminating to acknowledge how we change our opinions as we go through life. Listening to opinion fifty, let alone ten years ago one would have experienced a totally different reaction to so many things.
There are so many issues that form opinion and even prejudice of which probably we have no direct experience. We hold views that are in so many cases 'second hand' and often have behind them pressure groups who have objectives which are not our own.
Gay rights. The rights of an aborted baby against the rights of a mother who for what ever reason doesn't want the child. The attitude towards people from other parts of the world specifically their customs, and of course religion and its effect on the human physic.
The Humanities are the section of learning which deal with Ethics and Morality helping  us govern our response to "difference" which are at the heart of this conundrum.
How do we deal with difference. Difference denotes that something is not the same, that opinions are often diametrically opposite and its this surety which we have built up about ourselves as a touchstone to our world, where we are most vulnerable.
The format for our behaviour is learned from our mothers knee as early on we begin to pick up the nuances and the prejudice of our parents and the people around them.

Growing up in the 40s the social norms about, for-instance sex and cohabiting was clear. Outside marriage cohabiting was not acceptable, for the very sensible reason that pregnancy was a shared commitment and child rearing was a double act, the women stayed at home to look after Johnny and Dad went to work to pay the bills. For a whole load of externally manipulated reasons this profile of marriage and a single bread winner was pushed aside as credit was made available and a 'consumer' led economy was created. The distortions in our fragmented society were largely brought about by the economics, advertising and the push to compete with our neighbours for material aggrandisement.

As the recognisable identity of the nation changes, the norms change until eventually the power shifts and the Protestant ethos will be superseded by something else.
If the something else was more benign and less authoritarian then perhaps we would be better off but if the new power was autocratic then I fear that what appears inevitable will be a step backwards.