They represent the ultimate sacrifice – dying for one’s country.
Because they commemorate “Unknown Soldiers” who lack an individual identity, they become symbols of something greater.
These are monuments dedicated to nameless soldiers, and it’s this anonymity that gives these ghostly tombs their meaning. Let’s consider cenotaphs, one of the most interesting emblems of nationalism. Nationalists, however, do.Īnd that’s the key message here: Nationalism isn’t a religion, but it’s closer to religious belief systems than to modern political ideologies. Modern styles of thought, by contrast, remain silent on questions that can’t be settled by science, which is why neither liberals nor Marxists have much to say about immortality. Attempts to make sense of them are at the heart of most traditional belief systems. These two facts – the contingency of existence and the inescapability of mortality – have always weighed heavily on humans. Our genetic heritage, parents, and physical abilities are all determined by chance. All in all, Anderson’s most significant contribution here is that he was able to address all the anomalies that most theorists have created or was not able to tackle in defining nationalism.We enter this world on terms beyond our choosing. However, these do not entirely undermine the potency of Anderson’s vision.
Indeed, Anderson, himself, have left open several areas and questions because the subject is dynamic. In imagined community”, gaps could still be found – there are limitations in regard to the explanation of the elements that characterize the concept. The approach does not see nationalism as a discourse of power or one of ideology but one of cultural meaning and cognition. As an imagined community, a nation is provided a narrative meaning for individuals that constitute it by allowing the imagination of a territory of the nation without having personally to encounter it and its inhabitants. The thesis is not that explicitly constructivist but the idea captures the intensity of the concepts such as nationalism and nationhood. This is the reason why the concept of imagined community is very popular among social theorists. It transcends the idea that nationhood is fabricated or merely imaginary discourses. The process of Anderson’s imagined community is fundamental in understanding the elements of entry and connection in nationalism.
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