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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What he believes, hopes for and aims at is the outcome of association and intercourse.
But it indicates where the problem resides, whatever guise it assumes.
The easiest way out was to go back to the naked individual, to sweep away all associations as foreign to his nature and rights save as they proceeded from his own voluntary choice, and guaranteed his own private ends.
Personal loyalties to elders take the place of political obedience.