Until secrecy, prejudice, bias, misrepresentation, and propaganda as well as sheer ignorance are replaced by inquiry and publicity, we have no way of telling how apt for judgment of social policies the existing intelligence of the masses may be.
Dewey argues that overcoming misinformation and ignorance is essential for assessing public intelligence.
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Competition will continue, but it will be less rivalry for acquisition of material goods, and more an emulation of local groups to enrich direct experience with appreciatively enjoyed intellectual and artistic wealth.
Ideas which are not communicated, shared, and reborn in expression are but soliloquy, and soliloquy is but broken and imperfect thought.
That and that only gives reality to public opinion.
Publication is partial and the public which results is partially informed and formed until the meanings it purveys pass from mouth to mouth.