I think it's closer to the truth to say that natural irrationality is the raw material that manipulation by the powerful has to act upon.

Irrationality may still be too strong of a word here. After all, a lot of people still manage to get by pretty well in their lives without having someone more rational hold their hand through it.

It seems more that most people have a natural arationality that functions on a mixed associative and rote learning basis, and does--on the whole--pretty darn well, even in a context very different from the EEA.

It's when people try to apply abstract thinking without prior training that they go catastrophically wrong and are easily manipulated by people with influence.