One of the wisest things ever said by one of the profoundest
philosophers of all time was the warning to the seeker after truth
to beware of the influence of the ‘idols (or illusions) of the
tribe’ by which he meant that body of traditional prejudices which
every sect, family, nation, and neighbourhood has clinging to it,
and in the midst of which and at the mercy of which every human
being grows up.