The Challenge of Social Change and Tolerant Values
Following a year like no other in living memory; a year in which the whole world retreated behind closed doors and locked down;a year that questioned and stretched civilized and social norms and mores to breaking point and beyond; a year in which people examined and re-examined their priorities and life-styles; a year in which fundamental societal practices were broached and breached; have our fundamental values changed? Or are absolutely none of the aforementioned the experience of many? Or was it a mix and match with some having no doubts about their lives. Certainly it was a year in which questions were asked that had never arisen before and the answers for some were life changing. So the question is, are all our parameters and perimeters just a result of our experiences, expectations and exposure or are some – literally like the Ten Commandments – carved in stone? (Like the US Constitution is for some.) Is anything immutable or does everything, all our beliefs, have a tolerance greater than we think?
Are there any true inalienable rights or are civilized values a result of compassion, concession and compromise? Conscious decisions arrived at by society from experience and pragmatism? Are they ultimately what the majority agrees to abide by? And if so are they forever open to change from the pressure of contemporary preferences?