“All profound changes in consciousness, by their very nature, bring with them characteristic amnesias…Out of this estrangement comes a conception of personhood, identity…”
In the book, Anderson addresses how the sense of identity shifted radically with the elimination of the monarch which was a unifying factor. Moreover, he affirms that communities have ceased to identify through sharing religion with the populace in their society. The assertion alludes to this ‘amnesia’ that befell the communities in terms of what they used to identify by, thus create the imagined communities. In that, society conceives their personhood out of the illusion of nationalism. Anderson observes that nationalism is a social construction ingrained in the collective consciousness as a means to identify with each other.
“The fellow 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 the communion.”
The overarching theme being the nationalist myth, Anderson delves into details of how the concept is sort of an illusion. He emphasizes the actual disconnect that exists between citizens who believe to share nationalism as the common identifier. Current communities lack the shared identifiers hence the nation and its facets become the only identifier the citizens can rely on. With this perception, nationalism develops among people who do not necessarily know, understand or see each other beyond sharing a nation-state.
“It is the magic of nationalism to turn chance into destiny.”
Anderson asserts that an individual’s nationality is a fortuitous factor that is now turned into a vocation by nationalism. The construction of a narrative behind someone's citizenship brings out emotional attachments to the nation hence nationalism. The lack of social identifiers in the current climate that existed in past societies created a deficiency of a common identifier. Accordingly, citizenship becomes the closest dynamic to be relied on despite the detachment that may actually be there between the individuals in the community. This notion fosters grievances amid nations in the name of defending or preserving the spirit of their nation even sometimes xenophobic ideas.
