But I fear that for most of us it seems that, "as large a fraction of the general population as we can manage to reach" is indeed a tiny minority

I'm not sure about that. Where did most of today's ideas about politics and economics, specifically the ones influencing how politics and economies are run, come from? I would argue that they're third or fourth hand versions of ideas originally developed by small circles of "intelligentsia", similar to LW, several generations ago.

This is largely true of course. We inherit our institutions from the past - some of them from professional thinkers, like scientists, or from Enlightenment philosophers by way to the generation of the 1770s and the writers of the U.S. Constitution, who they also read Seneca, Cicero, Cato the Younger, etc., and were influenced by the English thinkers who were stirred up by the struggles of the the 1600s.

I'm just detecting very little urgency. I recently attended a Meetup where the saying they viewed it as important to get Level 5 thinkers to Level 6, and saw little point (or possibility?) in trying to facilitate moving from Level 2 to Level 3.

There is at least one very broad and deep movement working to change the beliefs of the electorate in certain preconceived directions, and they have a lot to show for it. E.g.:

In a 1991 Gallup poll, 47% of the US population, and 25% of college graduates agreed with the statement, "God created man pretty much in his present form at one time within the last 10,000 years."

Fourteen years later, in 2005, Gallup found that 53% of Americans expressed the belief that "God created human beings in their present form exactly the way the Bible describes it." About 2/3 (65.5%) of those surveyed thought that creationism was definitely or probably true.

according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_of_support_for_evolution.

When the USSR began to democratize, I think there was a missed window of opportunity and they went back to a new form of authoritarianism, from which I believe Berlusconi of Italy was able to take some lessons (i.e. from Putinism). This looked for a while like a turning back from Democracy in a nation (Italy) that had it for several decades.. During Russia's window of opportunity I think it arguable that the prevailing attitude was "Get the right ideas in the minds of the intelligentsia and that will do the job."

I expect LWers would agree that "propagandising the masses" (with ideology that we can't even agree on) is a non-starter, but I'm looking to participate with somebody in trying to broaden the idea or practice, or at least acceptance of the fruits of, a critical search for reality. One problem seems to be a breakdown common sense about who it trying to tell the truth and who is propagandising, and I fear sometimes and in too many places / situations / social circles, the U.S. is looking more like a third world country in this respect.

The posting at

http://lesswrong.com/lw/296/the_tragedy_of_the_social_epistemology_commons/

is at least thought provoking along the lines that I want to be thinking in (it's not clear who wrote it), and I wonder if there is more like it somewhere (in LW or elsewhere).