November 02, 2012

Kierkegaard: Public is everything and nothing

“A public is everything and nothing, the most dangerous of all powers and the most insignificant: one can speak to a whole nation in the name of the public and still the public will be less than a single real man, however unimportant. The qualification ‘public’ is produced by the deceptive juggling of an age of reflection, which makes it appear flattering to the individual, who in this way can arrogate to himself this monster in comparison with which concrete realities seem poor.” -- The Present Age: A Literary Review (1846) Søren Kierkegaard

(粗略不對句的意譯)
「公共」是一切,同時也是虛無的;它是所有權力之中最危險,卻也最微不足道的。某人可以在全國面前以「公共」之名演說,然而這"所謂的"「公共」卻比一個最不重要的凡人還要來得沒有意義。

「公共」的資格在這反思時代是被製造出來的騙人把戲。它美化背後所代表的個人,使得他們得以佔據「公共」這位置,來掩飾相形失色的事實上的個人。

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關心公共利益的同時,留心出於私利而冒用公義之名的謊言。


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