液化的共同體解救得了「大眾」雲團的氤氳霧靄嗎？

Can Liquid "Community" be a Remedy to "The Mass in a Mist"?

本文的宗旨在於剖析大眾的概念，進而檢討共同體是否有著「拯救」大眾現象所呈現之失整而「墮落」的可能性。作者的基本觀點是「否定」的，因為大眾與共同體雖同是西方社會發展的歷史產物，但是有著各自的結構條件作為後盾，彼此之間有著一定的不可共量性，是無法取代，也無法消滅的。尤其，在當代社會裡，倘若共同體的概念仍然有效的話，它已非過去源自人與人之間自然孕生之共感共應情緒所呈現的「先賦」特質，而是以「個體且理性化」的信念、價值與利益為基礎，甚至透過人為方式，經營起來的「成就共同體」。這樣的特質宣示著，現代的共同體若有的話，基本上是工具導向，其所引動之共感共應的集體情緒，不只相對地稀薄脆弱，而且隨著人們的意向不時變異、流動著。因此，液化的共同體是解救不了社會學家眼中之大眾現象所蘊涵的「弊病」的。

The purposes of this article are twofold. Firstly, it is oriented toward an analysis of the concept of "mass". Secondly, it is conducted to illuminate a view prevailing in the Western sociology, namely, "community" is a remedy to the mass in a mist which is supposed to be disintegrated and decayed. The answer to this statement is "negative". It is so because there is an incommensurability in structural logic between "mass" and "community" which means that there is no any track to make a possible transaction between these two notions, even though they are always conceived as two phenomena with a consecutive nature along the continuum of historical development in the European world. In particular, even the notion of "community" is still effective to be adopted in the modern society, it is surely not embodied with an ascribed nature of collective emotion commonly shared by the members of society as what always happened in the primitive society. Under the impetus of individualization in conjunction with rationalization as a predominant force in the modern society, "community" is rather built through the contractual promises among the people in the name of ideology, value or personal interest. The modern notion of "community", with a liquid nature, is thus instrumentally oriented and is formed through a process of achievement. Furthermore, it always presents itself in a changing mode along the line of intentionality generated by the people form time to time. It therefore drives to conclude that a "community" with a liquid nature can not serve as a remedy to "the mass in a mist" as some sociologists are looking forward to and so believe too.