Up Late

I stayed up past 1 am last night so I could finish the book, "The Help." I thoroughly enjoyed it and couldn't put it down. It made me think about some things.
Why is it that it's so easy now to look back on events that happened 20- 30-50- 100+ years ago and judge them as wrong? But if you lived back during those times, you yourself, couldn't see that it was wrong (you, in general)?
For example, how could anyone think it was okay to pay a woman less than a man for the exact same job?
It's so easy to say, "of course that isn't fair - what were they thinking?!"
I'm sure some people did notice and didn't like it, but I'm sure there were lots of people that didn't question it.
Are we just that much more enlightened now that we wouldn't ever make those mistakes? But that can't be right b/c we're still screwing up in certain areas (we, in general).
It makes me wonder what things I believe now (right or wrong) that I will completely change my mind about in, say, 20 years.
There was a little boy that lived in the outskirts of my neighborhood when I was growing up. He was biracial, and back then, that was odd - people talked. I heard adults around me "tsk" and refer to him as a half breed. My mom was really nice to him and also pitied him because she knew he'd have a rough time of it. And he did.
But now, I'd never use the word half breed, much less use that word around Abbie.
See, times change.
Certain things that I believed in college are not in my belief system anymore - is it time, maturity, life experiences, becoming a parent that brings on these changes? Probably all of the above.
The book made me think about some things, and I love thinking about things!