Imagined Communities

Anderson's Imagined Communities explores the roots of nationalism and its implications on humanity. He argues that nationalism is an invention, a creation, and that the fraternity felt between people in a community, who don't even know each other, is false. He writes, "all communities larger than primordial villages of face-to-face contact (and perhaps even these) are imagined." (6) When people of the same nation feel a connection to each other, without even meeting them, this connection is imagined. 

Anderson delves into the mysticism behind patriotism, the reason why millions of people have given their lives for an imagined concept. He identifies a crucial difference that separates pride for one's nation, and pride for any other community. The pride of the nation is obviously much more powerful because of the inability to join and leave it easily. "Dying for one's country, which usually one does not choose, assumes a moral grandeur which dying for the Labour Party, the American Medical Association, or perhaps even Amnesty International can not rival, for these are all bodies one can join or leave at easy will." (144) Therefore, Anderson underlines a key component of the strength of patriotism - the grandeur of having no other choice.