Aligning Views with Reality

I think that it is always important to align our views with reality. If reality is that non-human animals can feel pain and that it is bad to inflict pain, we should align our views and actions to create as little pain as possible. If reality is that people with darker skin are people no different from people with lighter skin (besides phenotypic characteristics), then we should align our views and actions away from slavery. I do not think that the expense of having to change the system and think differently should change that. As with Plato's allegory of the cave, we ought not entertain ourselves with the shadows of what is. We should seek the real thing. I think, then, that if the world is determined, we ought to come up with a different theory of ethics. It may have taken thousands of years to understand ethics currently, but if reality is determined and people cannot be held responsible for choosing to do a wrong thing, we ought to come up with new theories of ethics and justice. If something is wrong, we ought to abandon it. If something is the truth, we ought to accept it, even if it "makes a mess" of our current system of beliefs, because our current system is wrong, and continuing it would not be useful.