When various opinions all spring from a common and shared error, one is as good as another, and the accidents of education, temperament, class interest and the dominant circumstances of the age decide which is adopted.
Dewey reflects on how shared errors can lead to the acceptance of various opinions.
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They persist as emotional cries rather than as reasoned ideas.
But in this respect he does not differ from those explicitly designated public officials who have also been known to betray the interest committed to them instead of faithfully representing it.
There is therefore no necessary connection between the private character of an act and its non-social or anti-social character.
But he does so only at the cost of repression of those of his potentialities which can be realized only through membership in other groups.