How wary should we be of systematic attempts to coerce people into certain kinds of behaviours? Given the disastrous history of fascism and communism in the 20th Century and organised religions over the ages the record is not good.

I don’t think of capitalism in quite the same way. It is not much more than a word to describe what humans do. They use what they’ve got to their best advantage. Some are better at doing that than others and there have been many attempts through time to redress such inherent imbalances often with questionable results. But capitalism is hard to regulate and control as it did not spring from the human intellect as a big idea. Rather, it is innate to all living things. In this sense it is not an ideology at all.

Humans are always going to be drawn to bigger notions than nature capitalism. The idea of some benevolent system to be enforced will probably always be around the corner. Rather than the base instinct presiding where you use what you’ve got to your own best advantage, the thought that you could establish something better born out of imagination is surely a worthy pursuit. It may not however be a fashionable pursuit and the botched attempts of history are testimony to why we shouldn’t bother. But somehow in time I think the big idea will be back. And with it will come coercion.