Each of us is not born a blank slate onto which knowledge is imprinted. The cultural and experiential knowledge we gain in our lives interacts with those parts of us which are inherent - our urges, our strengths and weaknesses, our genetic predispositions - to form the rich tapestry that we call our personalities. Some of these interactions are to our benefit, and some of them are decidedly not. Compare the fiction of Santa Claus, which kickstarts the process of long-term goal-oriented planning in children, with the fiction that a member of one race is somehow less human than a member of another.
