The collectivity is not a warm, friendly gathering but a great link-up of economic and political forces inimical to the play of romantic fancies, only understandable in terms of quantity, expressing itself in actions and effects - a thing which an individual has to belong to with no intimacies of any kind but all the time conscious of his energetic contribution . . . .
An organic commonwealth - and only such commonwealths can join together to form a shapely and articulated race of [persons] - will never build itself up out of individuals but only out of small and ever small communities: a nation is a community to the degree that it is a community of communities.
(Quoted from page 198 of Rescuing Dewey: Essays in Pragmatic Naturalism, by Peter T. Manicas. Lexington Books, 2008.)
For a brief biography of Martin Buber, click here. For images of and relating to Martin Buber, click here. To learn about Peter T. Manicas, click here.
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