Do you think that the 'Rochdale Pioneers', the originators of what we know as 'The Co-operative Movement' should be better known?.

I do now.

The principles advocated by the Roachdale Society are a civilized way to operate a co-operative society, but hardly applicable in our current society, where such principals would be impossible to reconcile with the uncivilized behavior of the majority of the people.

Coops are great, but I’ve never heard of the Roachdale Society, so I can’t comment.

When you have a small group of people, so that violating the principles is personal, systems like the Rochdale principles work. But when the group is larger than a certain size, so that violating the principles is abstract, and you don’t know the people who will suffer from your transgression personally, the system breaks down.

It’s not so much that people are uncivilized as that people are tribal by nature, and have different standards for behavior towards people within the tribe as compared to people outside the tribe.