Fully agree with your first paragraph. Still we must consider the possibility that many, if not most people might disagree, regarding the psychological part. The main issue here, IMO (and just like in the democracy case) is that people are not only not equal, but widely different. It's fascinating to me to see currents of opinion forming. How Germans came to support Hitler and his actions, even non nazi ones... I know the theories, still it's a mistery to me.

I might want to share, and I might be indifferent, if not contemptuous to material possessions, but most of us aren't, I guess, despite casual spikes of generosity or highmindedness. I might see some sense in history, and direction for progress, but making the point to others is a whole different story.
PRists will tell you that eventually they really only give people what they want - I hear that line all day long about reality shows, and I don't agree with it, but you can't argue highminded goals against audience - and profit.  
As to circles... maybe that was originally a problem of elites. I was looking at a superb chateau in the Berry, in the center of France, two weeks ago, and thinking that it might have been a bit unproductive to drive those people down from their high chairs and into the mob. They and others alike now use democracy and other advances of modern society for their own benefit, in ways the "mob" cannot control anymore. Before, it was easy (well, "easy") to revolt, strangle Paris with barricades, chase them out of the palaces, guillotine some of them. Now they ("they") learnt how to hide their power, protect themselves behind law and democracy. Even revolution will not change this - as long as there are mobs, there will be elites outsmarting them. I'm not being pessimist, just saying that the organization of the society needs the kind of overhaul going far beyond what some imagine.

Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! (Martin Luther King)