Can virtues change?

Do virtues differ across societies and time-periods, or are they universal? If you want to make yourself into a better person, a better man, how do you know what direction to move in? For instance, is piety a virtue? Is patience, elegance, humility? Magnanimity, gentlemanlyness, wisdom... obedience, filial piety, fear of God? Or are some of these virtues now hopelessly outdated, ill-suited to a world which moves at breakneck pace, too lofty and idealistic in a world that is all about the material? What can we truly learn, for instance, about living in the world when we read a classic work on ethics and manners like the Confucian Analects? How relevant are these ancient discourses today? Why should anyone read about the ideal of how a "noble man" (the superior gentleman, junzi) should behave, when such an ideal would be exceedingly difficult to implement in practice?

On a few occassions at least I have tried to break out of the slacker mentality that characterizes many of my peers - or should I say, characterizes all of us when we get together: a mildly cynical, disinterested group consciousness that scoffs at pretention and high-minded idealism. In these situations I have usually found that it is near-impossible too break out of such social patterns and try to establish something new. Most people do not seem at all interested, and if my attempt has at all been noticed it has on occassion been met with reactions ranging from sniggering to outright laughter. On such occassions I have quickly corrected myself; this is not an idealistic century, and when the reality of Heaven has been denied altogether, it begins to seem ludicrous when somebody tries to reach it.

There is one saying from the Analects that I particularly like:

See a person's means (of getting things). Observe his motives. Examine that in which he rests. How can a person conceal his character?

And the following one:

If a man has no humaneness what can his propriety be like? If a man has no humaneness what can his happiness be like?

 These sayings are so lofty in character - and needless to say, androcentric - that they are "culturally impossible" today, at least in countries like Sweden.

If the first saying seems obscure to you, it is (I believe) essentially the same as Jesus' saying in Matthew 7:20: By their fruits ye shall know them. Just as a bad tree does not bear good fruits, a person's character is known through his actions.