Sidney Hook captures this sense of the vulnerability of the human condition when he defines pragmatism as «the theory and practice of enlarging human freedom in a precarious and tragic world by the arts of
intelligent social control it may not be [a] lost [cause] if we can summon the courage and intelligence to support our faith in freedom...» (CAP 193).
They are not loyal, they are only servile; not dutiful, only sheepish; not public spirited, only patriotic; not courageous, only quarrelsome; not determined, only obstinate; not masterful, only domineering; not self -
controlled, only obtuse; not self - respecting, only vain; not kind, only sentimental; not
social, only gregarious; not considerate, only polite; not
intelligent, only opinionated; not progressive, only factious; not imaginative, only superstitious; not just, only vindictive; not generous, only propitiatory; not disciplined, only cowed; and not truthful at all: liars every one of them, to the very backbone of their souls.