An Imagined community is how Anderson describes the central cause for the belief in nationalism. Citizens have a strong belief in nationalism because the community in which they are apart of is imagined. "It is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow members, meet them , or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion." Members of the community never truly know a vast majority of the nation, yet they feel drawn together because of the false belief of the imagined community. Anderson further develops on the idea by using national anthems as an example. "At precisely such moments people wholly unknown to each other utter the same verses to the same melody. The image: unisonance" Members of the communtity feel connected as they sing, somehow related, but in reality all that connects them is sound.

Anderson's "Imagined Communities"

In the essay "Imagined Communities: Reflections, on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism", author Benedict Anderson explores the nature of nationalism. Anderson argues that the idea of a nation is purely a created image. He says, “[The nation] is an imagined political community – and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign” (Anderson, 6). Anderson believes the nation is thus a created idea: one where one’s ‘nation’ has defined limits and whose concept of sovereignty is merely an ancient scheme.

Anderson further argues the ties and bonds we feel to our nation are in fact just as imagined and just as superficial. He writes, “…nation-ness is assimilated to skin-colour, gender, parentage and birth-era – all those things one cannot help. And in these ‘natural ties’ one sense what one might call ‘the beauty of gemeinschaft’. To put it another way, precisely because such ties are not chosen, they have about them a halo of disinterestedness” (Anderson, 143). In this thought-provoking statement, Anderson argues that the very reasons that we feel ‘naturally’ bonded to our fellow countrymen have nothing natural about them. Like our nation itself, the bonds that we feel to the larger community are purely imagined: a created tie that we thus feel draws us closer to each other.

Quotes from Anderson

In his essay “Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism,” Benedict Anderson suggests that martyrdom executed in the name of nationalism springs from the belief that death for one’s country is an act of inherent pureness. He accordingly engages the quandary of “how far” people would be “willing to die for” a nationalistic cause “if [they] imagined the proletariat merely as a group in hot pursuit of refrigerators, holidays, or power” (Anderson 144) to validate the implication that mortal sacrifice can only be induced by the “aura of purity” (144) surrounding nationalism. In short, because the latter is thought to be constituted by such a wholesome foundation of integrity, it can drive many to risk their lives in its honor.

Anderson also comments on the criticism of nationalism’s frequent indistinctness. He concludes that “cosmopolitan and polylingual intellectuals” (Anderson 5) often harp on nationalism’s lack of clear identity by likening it to “ ‘neurosis’ in the individual, with much the same essential ambiguity attaching to it” (5). Anderson underscores the perspective that the flaws of vagueness and “emptiness” (5) give rise to nationalism’s reputation of being philosophically and theoretically unclear and unsubstantial.

Imagined Communities Quotes

Benedict Anderson describes the unified feeling of nationalism as being imagined because in a nation citizens can only rely on faith that their contemporaries share the same beliefs. Nationalism "is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members... yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion." Without meeting or even talking to every member in the nation, the unity of nationalism is only a thought.

Benedict Anderson relates the imagined communities to a type of fraternity with enough comradeship to offer such sacrifices as large as life itself.  "This fraternity... makes it possible... for so many millions of people, not so much to kill, as willingly to die for such limited imaginings." The fraternity of nationalism is a great enough force to evoke extremities.

Sarah's Anderson Quotations

1. Anderson suggests that, contrary to the common perception of nations, a nation is in fact an imaginary entity: "It is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion" (Anderson 6).  Thus, though members of a nation may have no real physical connection--may indeed be completely unknown to each other--their concept of shared nationality creates a strong psychological bond between them, which forms the bedrock of their nation.

2. Unlike those who have proposed that nationalism is rooted in xenophobia, Anderson believes that nationalism is actually founded upon love for one's country.  Indeed, he argues, "the cultural products of nationalism--poetry, prose fiction, music, plastic arts--show this love very clearly in thousands of different forms and styles.  On the other hand, how truly rare it is to find analogous nationalist products expressing fear and loathing" (Anderson 142-3).  The lack of evidence for the former model, coupled with the abundant wealth of evidence for the latter, compel one--in Anderson's view--to perceive nationalism as a product of love rather than fearful hatred.

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. 

Anderson quotes

1.  Anderson argues that nationalism can be instilled into another person because nationalism is not one singular characteristic but instead the grouping of many different aspects.  These 'modulars' are "capable of being transplanted, with varying degrees of self-consciousness, to a great variety of social terrains, to merge and be merged with..." (4).  The outcome of merging the old and new facets of  ones views creates a more cohesive bond throughout a large group of people because they are linked on many differing levels.

2. A nation is only an imagined political community according to Anderson.  "It is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion," Anderson states(6).  This idea shows his belief that without even knowing or just knowing of someone there is an overlying bond that holds them together in their shared nation.