I have to disagree with your first statement here, primarily because I agree wholly with your second one.

Rational action only happens when one uses logic and critical reasoning in decision making and as we have agreed before this seldom happens now. The most powerful tools the manipulators have is their ability to get others to 'think' emotionally. This is how they have 'enslaved' so many and as you point out this process has been happening for decades and has a significant portion of the general population enthralled.

When I pointed out that there are undeniable non-rational elements as part of human nature it was my intent to imply that these are what get manipulated. Emotion, when allowed to influence decision making, makes the process irrational. The best value of emotion is it's ability to take thought/ideas and convert them into action. I like to phrase this, "Thought without emotion is impotent however thought derived through emotion is irrational and easily manipulated by others".