What Values

There are some issues in this country which are so dependent on individual belief systems that we are unlikely ever to come to a common national position.

Take an issue like guns and safety.  If you believe that the right to own a gun is more important than the right to be safe, than we have a significant and possibly unbridgeable abyss.

Of course those who support gun ownership tend to argue that guns make you safe, although clearly this isn't supported by the many statistics on gun violence.

There are obviously other weapons available but guns are unique in many ways.

Responsible gun owners are not the problem and this isn't about that specific issue.

A similar issue is abortion.  If you consider it murder you will never accept it.  If you consider it as simply another form of birth control, you will never understand the other sides position.

One of the phenomena's of the modern era is that in many cases truth is now relative.

For most of history societies excepted that there was a single authority who dictated what was right or wrong for everybody and questioning that authority was heretical and severely punished.

We now live in a world where we are our own authority or can choose one based on our personal predilections.

This creates a climate and a system where there is no clearly defined truth, where many believe what they want to.

Of course some still cling to the belief systems they were raised with, although even many of them have changed during their lifetime based on a personal event or crisis.

Without a central authority everything can be questioned, even those things that seem indisputable to many.

If a fundamental issue such as the existence of God is in question, what isn't?

What are the core beliefs of a society?  Who defines them?

The freedom to be who you want to be can be liberating, but it is also terrifying.

Our society and values are in many ways in flux and the new authority is probably the court of public opinion, which unfortunately has trouble making up it mind.

Or it jumps to conclusions.