Few people appreciate the power of ideas.
When they experience the social and economic effects of intellectually inspired long-term trends, many tend to ascribe the process to a conspiracy of some kind. More than 160 years ago J. S. Mill wrote of how the ideas of a few writers can eventually influence the thinking of a nation's intellectuals. I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas. Not, indeed, immediately, but after a certain interval. . . . But, sooner or later, it is ideas, not vested interests, which are dangerous for good or evil.