It would be a great mistake, however, to regard the idea of the isolated individual possessed of inherent rights “by nature” apart from association, and the idea of economic laws as natural, in comparison with which political laws being artificial are injurious (save when carefully subordinated), as idle and impotent.
Dewey critiques the notion of individual rights as separate from social contexts and economic realities.
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The clear consciousness of a communal life, in all its implications, constitutes the idea of democracy.
What he believes, hopes for and aims at is the outcome of association and intercourse.
What is significant is that access to means of amusement has been rendered easy and cheap beyond anything known in the past.
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.