We're So Advanced! Really?

I just got home from seeing the movie The Help with some girlfriends.  This actually has nothing to do with the movie (which was really good and I highly recommend it!) but it just got me thinking...what will the movies 50 years from now reveal about our lives?  What things accepted as "normal" in society now will seem horrendous to our grandchildren? 

The Help (based on a book by the same title) is about black maids telling their stories about working for white southern women.  Treating someone like a servant (or slave) is totally foreign to me, but I can't help but wonder what I would really think if I had been raised that way.  I would never treat someone as less than an equal, would I?  Do I treat all my neighbors on this planet the way I would like to be treated?  It's appalling to look back into history to see how (some) white people treated (some) black people.  It feels like slavery and segregation are some archaic mistakes that don't affect us anymore, but the sad truth is that it is all relatively recent history!  Even more sad, slavery isn't dead.  It just has a different face.

I'm thinking about all the plastic crap that is made in China.  (I'm also thinking about all the other disgusting faces of current slavery that will haunt me if I spend too much time thinking about them.)  So, I'm going to stick to slavery I support, however reluctantly.  Buying cheap things made in cheap factories for cheap prices isn't worth the money "saved".  There are SOULS working in factories, getting grossly underpaid and overworked just to save us a dime.  When I take a moment to think about WHO made the majority of the THINGS I'd like to buy....well, I realize I want less.  I'll be honest, this is hard.  I like stuff and I don't have a lot of money.  I probably will get my kids a Happy Meal toy here and there.  The computer I'm typing on now was probably pieced together by starving children for all I know.  I would have to go without a lot of stuff if I truly wanted to avoid supporting slavery.  How do I find balance in this?  If I buy Fair Trade the rest of my life, will that even make a difference?

I don't have the answers.  And this is only one example.
It's much easier to judge the cruelty of past generations.