The disparity between the results of the industrial revolution and the conscious intentions of those engaged in it is a remarkable case of the extent to which indirect consequences of conjoint activity outweigh, beyond the possibility of reckoning, the results directly contemplated.
Dewey reflects on the unexpected consequences of the industrial revolution compared to the intentions behind it.
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There was no logic which rendered necessary the appeal to the individual as an independent and isolated being.
Mistakes pile up and consolidate themselves into laws and methods of administration which are more harmful than the consequences which they were originally intended to control.
There are even those who hold that the presumption is always that social loss will result from agents of the public doing anything which could be done by persons in their private capacity.
For the very familiarity with the phenomena conceals their significance and blinds us to their relation to immediate political problems.