A chance of fate determines the society and culture we are born into: our gender and race roles, our nationality, language, religion, social class, etc. Then the voices of socialization (custom, tradition and public opinion) so overwhelm us that by the time we reach the age of reason we accept them as fact and ride them to our death bed, forever failing to question their initial chance authority. Such is the fate of the average man.
But this isn’t the case for the occasional person who, through a supportive environment or spark of insight or outside influence, recognizes this situation and challenges it. But it takes continuous effort to silence these inherited voices because their authority runs deep and is only incrementally reduced with each successive try.
Each of us owes it to ourselves, our community and future generations to examine these inherited ways of thinking and replace them with a conscious, rational, deliberately chosen set of values and beliefs.