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MEN AND WOMEN: Why our society is more tolerant


Endless news of hatred and terrorist attacks is concealing an important fact. That the world’s actually becoming a much more tolerant place, on a wide range of social issues.

You’re surprised? Most people believe that things are continually getting worse. But actually, the past was truly brutal.Where it was entirely acceptable to invade, rape and pillage another country, and minority ethnic groups and religions were persecuted everywhere.

Nowadays we’re far less violent than ever before. There are far more democracies and fewer dictatorships. Slavery, considered normal for thousands of years, is outlawed everywhere.

Women are achieving the same rights and opportunities as men. And sexual orientation is no longer a barrier to full social acceptance in more and more countries.

There are big variations around the world, of course, with English speaking, Scandinavian and Latin countries being the most tolerant.

And everywhere the pace of change is increasing, following a path from a morality based on authorities, towards one grounded in individual rights and democracy.

ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

The only exception being societies where the welfare of the community’s rated more important than individual rights, such as in the Far East.

People are starting to believe that moral judgements should be based on universal ethical principles, such as racial or sexual equality. And that laws that violate these principles must be resisted.

It’s thinking like that that drove visionary leaders like Gandhi and Nelson Mandela to protest against the laws of their time.

The growth of tolerance is mostly being driven by increased education, and exposure to new ideas through newspapers, radio, TV, and especially the Internet.

A wider education makes people question traditional and religious authorities. The Internet’s showing them how other people lead their lives, and how their morality varies between cultural groups.

In the past, people rarely heard the details of war or violence against women. Now, police brutality gets captured on a smartphone and instantly distributed.

ACCESS TO INTERNET

Which is why repressive regimes carefully control education and restrict people’s access to the Internet.

Hate groups and militants still find eager followers, of course, especially among the disadvantaged. Arguing for a return to a “purer” traditional morality. But they will lose.

Because on every issue, younger people are far more open-minded than older people, and so levels of tolerance are continually rising.

Educated people are increasingly adopting ethical standards grounded in fairness, and increasingly individualistic social and sexual values. And there’s a rising mistrust of traditional principles and institutions, such as marriage.

And so as modern culture shifts away from orthodox attitudes towards homosexuality, premarital sex, contraception, cohabitation and divorce, religious standpoints on such matters are rapidly reducing deep and beautiful faiths to what increasingly looks to young people like a repressive obsession with sex.

But the sexual revolution will not be undone anytime soon. And so religions must re-focus their mission onto being messengers of love, dignity, harmony and grace. Or risk becoming marginalised in an increasingly individualistic world.