However, the extension of such schemes also risks institutionalising a two-tier society: on the one hand those connected to the conventional economy, and on the other a sub-culture that exists economically and socially outside the conventional economy.

ECONOMIST: The countryside

It has been observed that ideas that become conventional wisdom in everything from politics to culture were often born 20 or so years earlier in the radical thinking of a small elite.

FORBES: Editor's Note

So thoroughly has this fable soaked into the culture that it is now mere conventional wisdom that if we just let it all out from the deep recesses of our souls--the anger, the fear, the prejudice, whatever--we will all be better off.

CNN: Viewpoint: Not Enough Conversation?

Large bureaucracies can be masterful at creating an insular and self-serving culture in which people reinforce each other and become captive to what becomes the conventional wisdom.

WSJ: Donald Rumsfeld's Rules for Successful Meetings