Such a change sometimes occurs, but when it does, it is because the social conditions, in generating a new public, have prepared the way for it; the state sets a formal seal upon forces already in operation by giving them a defined channel…
John Dewey
The Public Record
John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the first half of the twentieth century.
gutenberg.org
Conceptions of “The State” as something per se, something intrinsically manifesting a general will and reason, lend themselves to illusions.
They make such a sharp distinction between the state and a government that, from the standpoint of the theories, a government may be corrupt and injurious and yet The State by the same idea retain its inherent dignity and nobility.
Officials may be mean, obstinate, proud and stupid and yet the nature of the state which they serve remain essentially unimpaired.
Since, however, a public is organized into a state through its government, the state is as its officials are.
Only through constant watchfulness and criticism of public officials by citizens can a state be maintained in integrity and usefulness.
An alphabet is letters, and “society” is individuals in their connections with one another.
The mode of combination of letters with one another is obviously a matter of importance; letters form words and sentences when combined, and have no point nor sense except in some combination.
I would not say that the latter statement applies literally to individuals, but it cannot be gainsaid that singular human beings exist and behave in constant and varied association with one another.
These modes of conjoint action and their consequences profoundly affect not only the outer habits of singular persons, but their dispositions in emotion, desire, planning and valuing.
In the concrete, there are societies, associations, groups of an immense number of kinds, having different ties and instituting different interests.
If one wishes to realize the distance which may lie between “facts” and the meaning of facts, let one go to the field of social discussion.