It has been for want of good character, good example, and good government.” The notion that intelligence is a personal endowment or personal attainment is the great conceit of the intellectual class, as that of the commercial class is that wealth is something which they personally have wrought and possess.
Dewey critiques the notion that intelligence and wealth are solely personal achievements, emphasizing the role of character and governance.
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The local communities without intent or forecast found their affairs conditioned by remote and invisible organizations.
For the very familiarity with the phenomena conceals their significance and blinds us to their relation to immediate political problems.
If one wishes to realize the distance which may lie between “facts” and the meaning of facts, let one go to the field of social discussion.
Freedom presented itself as an end in itself, though it signified in fact liberation from oppression and tradition.