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 foe to be dreaded is interference of government.
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.
It rules but it does not regulate; for its rule is confined to receipt of tribute and ceremonial deference.
Nor can the liberating and confirming results of public action be construed to yield a wholesale idealization of states in contrast with other associations.