So to the patent objection that the state is a very modern institution, it is replied that while modernity is a property of those structures which go by the name of states, yet all history, or almost all, records the exercise of analogous functions.
Dewey discusses the historical continuity of state functions despite modern perceptions of the state as a recent development.
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The problem of securing diffused and seminal intelligence can be solved only in the degree in which local communal life becomes a reality.
But the wingèd words of conversation in immediate intercourse have a vital import lacking in the fixed and frozen words of written speech.
That and that only gives reality to public opinion.
Signs and symbols, language, are the means of communication by which a fraternally shared experience is ushered in and sustained.