The Great Society vs. The Great Community

Dewey contrasts the fragmented, technologically interconnected 'Great Society' with the ideal of a genuinely democratic and participatory 'Great Community.'

The central tension between the large-scale, impersonal 'Great Society' and the need for a participatory, communicative 'Great Community.'

The distinction between the public and the state, and the need for the public to organize itself, prefigures the later argument for transforming the Great Society into a Great Community.

The chapter's focus on the need for the public to organize into a state through representative officials, and the critique of metaphysical state theories, sets the stage for the later distinction between a mere 'Great Society' and a genuine 'Great Community'.

Dewey notes that the Great Society created by technology is a society but not a community, and that the invasion of local communities by impersonal forces is the outstanding fact of modern life.