Has there ever been such a change in society in such a short time? In centuries past, values and customs were passed from one generation to the next. One doesn't need to go back too far to see a time when racism, sexism, workers' rights and homosexuality were viewed entirely differently by Western culture from how they are today. The 20th century was a time of massive upheaval and huge social change. The tempting assumption to make is that people have changed somehow in the last few generations, but we have not. Zeitgeist can be a funny thing.
 
Obviously our views depend on a huge variety of variables, including both nature and nurture. To ask how a person would have acted in a given situation, or what beliefs he would have had, had he been alive a century ago is an academic question: he would not have had hugely different influences. Nonetheless, some things do not change: parents and family can, compared to the standards of the time, be conservative or liberal, religious or not, academically inclined or otherwise, political or apathetic. Further, those who hold a particular belief can do so for a number of reasons.
 
Most people have motivations different from what they would ever admit. In an ideal world they would start with some core principles and use those as the first step towards working out what their beliefs are. Instead, they start by having a belief system and then try to justify it. Whatever the issue is, some people will follow the majority because their thoughts are coloured by the society around them; in a similar vein a minority of people will go against the grain for the sake of doing so. Most people fall into one of these two groups. Only a small minority of people reach their views because of their reasoning, and even many of those use self-centred or irrational logic, such as those who support unions and oppose capitalism on the grounds of not liking rich people. Still, at least they're thinking about it, instead of just following the herd.
 
What bothers me particularly is the shrill tones with which Western organisations try to control opinion in the non-Western world: the messages that third world countries are getting from the West (inter alia, religious and cultural tolerance are important but sexism is out) are totally different from the messages of 100 years ago (if you don't convert to Christianity you will burn in hell; you must dress modestly; if you kill one of us we will kill five of you because we are more important). Most of the people giving the message have never seriously bothered to question it themselves, simply parroting whatever propoganda they have heard from similarly unthinking individuals.
 
I shudder whenever I hear of various United Nations initiatives with the aims of 'teaching' citizens of Third World countries about our values. The aims - not hitting one's wife, for example - sound laudable to me. But then I am a child of my times and I have always accepted that it is wrong to hit women, without ever holding it up to close examination, or questioning whether other values may be more important. What we are really teaching is popular thought in Western society at this point in time.
 
No doubt the Western world will hold a different set of values in 100 years time (vegetarianism and not driving cars would be my guesses), and the West will be going to great lengths to get the rest of the world to follow them. Why we should be so sure that these are the right values, given how often we change our minds about them ourselves? If we were really so keen on tolerance we would let people do things as they have always done them. But we don't, because the hubris that comes from being brought up in a peaceful, educated, Western society convinces us that our values are more important than anyone else's, even as we travel around the world telling people to be tolerant towards other cultures.
 
Educated white folks continue to think that their place in life is telling others how to live. The spirit of the missionary is still alive and well. But we are making a fatal error, because we cannot teach values. History, science and maths all have definites, so can be taught. But we cannot teach that our values are correct, because you can't teach something that has no right and no wrong.