Lars P. Syll — Keynes’s fundamental insight

The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in the escaping from the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds.
— John Maynard Keynes

This is not the whole story about this however. There is also the iron law of institutions: 

"The people who control institutions care first and foremost about their power within the institution rather than the power of the institution itself. Thus, they would rather the institution "fail" while they remain in power within the institution than for the institution to "succeed" if that requires them to lose power within the institution." (attributed to Jonathan Schwartz)

People are not only captured by ideas, but they capture institutions that then amplify these ideas institutionally and even culturally. Never underestimate organizational power for both good and ill.

Lars P. Syll’s Blog
Keynes’s fundamental insight
Lars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University