For in spite of itself any movement that thinks and acts in terms of an ‘ism becomes so involved in reaction against other ‘isms that it is unwittingly controlled by them. For it then forms its principles by reaction against them instead of by a comprehensive, constructive survey of actual needs, problems, and possibilities.
Interpretation
This quote highlights how movements based on rigid ideologies can lose their direction by reacting to opposition rather than addressing real-world issues.
John Dewey's quote illustrates the pitfalls of ideological movements that define themselves solely in opposition to other 'isms', such as capitalism, socialism, or any other political or philosophical doctrine. Instead of focusing on constructive solutions and addressing the genuine needs and challenges of society, these movements often get trapped in a cycle of reactionary behavior, which can lead to a lack of clarity and purpose. Dewey warns that this reactive stance can inhibit progress and prevent the formulation of effective principles grounded in reality.
In practice
During a debate about political ideologies, one could use this quote to emphasize the need for a constructive approach rather than reactive opposition.
Every teacher should realize he is a social servant set apart for the maintenance of the proper social order and the securing of the right social growth. In this way, the teacher always is the prophet of the true God and the usherer-in of the true Kingdom of God.
Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife.
It science involves an intelligent and persistent endeavor to revise current beliefs so as to weed out what is erroneous, to add to their accuracy, and, above all, to give them such shape that the dependencies of the various facts upon one another may be as obvious as possible.
Any genuine teaching will result, if successful, in someone's knowing how to bring about a better condition of things than existed earlier.
The reactionaries are in possession of force, in not only the army and police, but in the press and the schools
Communication of science as subject-matter has so far outrun in education the construction of a scientific habit of mind that to some extent the natural common sense of mankind has been interfered with to its detriment.
What is a monster? A being whose survival is incompatible with the existing order.
When we talk about our lives, long or short, brief and tragic or enduring beyond comprehension, we impose a continuity on them, and that continuity is a lie.
The way to God is the opposite to that of the world. And to few, very few, are given to have God and mammon at the same time.
So, he reasoned, if you can identify the sources of a government's power - people working in civil service, police and judges, even the army - then you know what a dictatorship depends on for its existence.
To be natural is such a very difficult pose to keep up.
I alternate between thinking of the planet as home - dear and familiar stone hearth and garden - and as a hard land of exile in which we are all sojourners.
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