But, so it is contended in effect, it is absurd to convert this legal liberation into a dogma which alleges that release from old oppressions confers upon those emancipated the intellectual and moral qualities which fit them for sharing in regulation of affairs of state.
Dewey critiques the idea that legal liberation automatically endows individuals with the qualities necessary for political participation.
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Vision is a spectator; hearing is a participator.
Signs and symbols, language, are the means of communication by which a fraternally shared experience is ushered in and sustained.
But the wingèd words of conversation in immediate intercourse have a vital import lacking in the fixed and frozen words of written speech.
The problem of securing diffused and seminal intelligence can be solved only in the degree in which local communal life becomes a reality.