We talk much more about individualism and liberty than our ancestors. But as so often happens, when anything becomes conscious, the consciousness is compensatory for absence in practice.

Dewey is pointing to a paradox of modern political rhetoric: the louder a society proclaims “individualism” and “liberty,” the more that talk may signal their erosion in lived social arrangements. He suggests that ideals become objects of explicit, self-conscious celebration precisely when they are no longer secure as habits embedded in everyday practice. The remark also reflects Dewey’s pragmatist suspicion of abstract slogans detached from institutions—rights and freedoms are real only insofar as they are enacted through education, economic organization, and democratic participation. In that sense, the quote is less a dismissal of liberty than a warning that verbal devotion can mask practical dependence, conformity, or structural constraint.