They are expressions of chosen phases and factors among those facts, but they are also something more: namely, forces which have shaped those facts and which are still contending to shape them in the future this way and that.
This quote illustrates how political ideas not only reflect but also actively shape societal facts and dynamics.
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More from John Dewey
For the older symbols of ideal life still engage thought and command loyalty.
For the very familiarity with the phenomena conceals their significance and blinds us to their relation to immediate political problems.
The invasion of the community by the new and relatively impersonal and mechanical modes of combined human behavior is the outstanding fact of modern life.
Custom consolidates what accident may have originated; established power has a way of legitimizing itself.