The political forms of democracy and quasi-democratic habits of thought on social matters have compelled a certain amount of public discussion and at least the simulation of general consultation in arriving at political decisions.
Dewey discusses how democratic processes necessitate public discourse and the appearance of consultation in political decision-making.
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Custom consolidates what accident may have originated; established power has a way of legitimizing itself.
That the state should be to some a deity and to others a devil is another evidence of the defects of the premises from which discussion sets out.
What is significant is that access to means of amusement has been rendered easy and cheap beyond anything known in the past.
There is therefore no necessary connection between the private character of an act and its non-social or anti-social character.