The opposite of alienation is belonging. The opposite of division is unity and solidarity.

So how do these admirable aims square with a world in which all the talk, at least in the West, is of increasingly disunited societies, legions of people feeling "left behind," of widening inequality and of rage against "establishments" who are alleged to be doing better all the time while the rest are doing worse?

"Capitalism that works for everyone" has recently become a favorite slogan of Western leaders, including the British prime minister. But that plainly is not happening. On the contrary, while the system seems to work very well for various chief executives, high-rolling financiers and their friends, who pay themselves eye-watering salaries at hundreds of times the levels of average wages, for too many people and communities lower down the benefits of the capitalism are becoming hard to find.