John Dewey: “They assume that democracy is the product of an idea, of a single and consistent intent.”

Custom consolidates what accident may have originated; established power has a way of legitimizing itself.

They are made that way; it is “the nature of the beast.” We do not gain anything by inserting instincts to run, creep, swim and fly between the structure and the act.

They are reflections into the singular human being of customs and institutions; they are not natural, that is, “native,” organic propensities.

There was no logic which rendered necessary the appeal to the individual as an independent and isolated being.