That's an insightful post, linking ideas that were previously unrelated in my mind - cultural differences between the city and the countryside; different opinions on heritability of traits; and possibly genetic profiling (as an alternative for knowing about the whole family history of someone).

Maybe an alternative way of phrasing it is that as society gets more complex, the effect of single variables is harder and harder to discern. Add to that that the "accumulated knowledge of the ancients" loses value as life changes faster and faster (one's grandfather's career advice is less and less useful), and it becomes harder and harder for individuals to predict their future (education, literacy and media work against that, but are probably not strong enough).