Imagining Communities (Is Harder Than It Should Be)

Visiting my girlfriend's father is always a more trying time than it should be. I've become accustomed to how he berates me for reading Foucault - who he calls a "french fag" - even though he has no tangible reason for animosity against the French. And our discussions often devolve, in the span of seconds, into intellectual pissing contests that not even a dog would join. So this was my mistake. I thought when I brought up Anderson's Imagined Communities, it would be different.

After exclaiming ooo's and aaa's, he shot his drunken self up the stairs to retrieve his copy of the book. He told me about how some society that he is in keeps him up to date on what's new and important (for a book originally published in 1983...). He even flipped through the book to show me that he had highlighted passages. But then the venom returned: "This is a bunch of post-modern crap!"

Whatever the reason for his disdain, I realized that the notion of a universally applicable - if historically and spacially specific - nationalism was more controversial than we had discussed. Anderson is an American writing for an Anglo-phone audience, at times explaining how America's establishing of independence inspired many consequent revolutions. I thought this would go over fine - American-written is usually the path of least resistance when discussing books. But I forget sometimes that nationalism, as a political rallying cry, spearheads the legitimization of independence movements that have to emancipate themselves from the archetype itself: America. Now I wonder, if Anderson endorses nationalism, how does he feel about the collision of nationalisms? Are the claims just relative to each nation? If every nation can have its nationalism, to what extent can one be independent of another? I also wonder how this relates to globalism, as well as the contest between universal and particular ethics (for lack of better phrasing).

What would Anderson suggest for me if I've already been imagining a community with my girlfriend's father, even though he's shown no sign of ever granting me independence?