In its simplest form, what is thought of as community is a group of people coming together on the basis of something shared for the benefit of the community. To imagine this form of community, people must reconstruct it as a memory from a prehistoric time in which they lived in harmony with other people. But as they have not experienced this memory, where does it come from? Jean-Francois Lyotard suggests the knowledge-making power of narratives. He distinguishes between mythic narratives that point back in time to group origins and grand narratives that point forward in time to promised outcomes. Three different myths explain why it seems that community is inevitable. First, the myth of "community as preordained" maintains that communities were preordained for human beings by a transcendental God. Second, the myth of "community as organic" views community as an organic grouping of people, something inevitable and part of the Natural world. Third, the myth of "community as necessary to the survival of the species" invokes Darwinian thinking. It suggests that community is inevitable but it replaces religion and spiritual forces with scientific ones: community is necessary to the survival of the species. All three myths organize themselves around a prime cause or transcendental power. In asserting community's inevitability, people seek to defuse communal actions and evade their consequences. In doing so, they claim a modernist position that rests on universality and progress. As Raymond Williams points out, community is "never to be used unfavorably." (Contains 21 references.) (TB)
