The Imagined Community

As I consider identiy in our globablized world, I am particularly interested in the ways people identify themselves within a Nation. National Identiy is considered by some most meaningful and effective as it "provides individuals a place in the world." (quoted from Anthony D. Smith, "National Identity") In my search for the origins of National Identities, I have come across the book "Imagined Communities" by Benedict Anderson, in which he argues that Nations are imagined, constructed by the minds of masses. He states that they are "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." In a way, a Nation gives one a false sense of comfort, granting the image of a community that exists outside of reality. What is it that causes us to be so passionate about our nations? How can our identity be wrapped up in something so imaginary? However, the idea of "nationness" is undeniably influential and perhaps this is because it "endows human action with a meaning that endures over time, thus carrying a promise of immortality." (Yael Tamir, The Enigma of Nationalism) I am currently studying artwork from the Pacific Polynesian islands, and I am struck in the passion artists exhibit in keeping their culture/nation alive through art. Certainly their is the idea that one can live on in the lives of his/her descendants, but is it dangerous to wrap ones identity up in something imagined? Is it dangerous to assume immortality through the continuity of culture? I am reminded as the author of Ecclesiastes has said, "God has set eternity in the heart's of men." How do we identify ourselves within a nation and why?…