{"id":10935,"date":"2017-01-11T22:07:44","date_gmt":"2017-01-12T06:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dminlgp.com\/?p=10935"},"modified":"2017-01-11T22:07:44","modified_gmt":"2017-01-12T06:07:44","slug":"lol-imagined-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/lol-imagined-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"LOL: Imagined Communities"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"chalkboard\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My 10th grade history teacher, Mr. Housewright\u2019s, words ring in my ears when reading Imagined Communities.\u00a0 When he asked what is capitalism based on that has built our American nation, we would stare blankly back at him. Then dramatically he would write one chalky, white word on the green chalkboard: GREED.\u00a0 This has always been a troubling concept for my American culture, yet sadly all too true.\u00a0 I love my country and feel a loyalty to it, but for the sake of greedy gain, people have suffered.\u00a0 So much of our nation\u2019s success and greatest failures can be traced back to the greed of capitalism.\u00a0 Slavery was instituted, an entire American Indian race was almost wiped out due to the “Manifest Destiny” belief, child labor laws needed to be enforced due to the overworking of children during the Industrial Age, and laws combating segregation needed to be implemented due to the continual discriminatory treatment of minorities.\u00a0 To treat people as equals costs, and to put people above money or business goals, costs the company or nation.\u00a0 Too many times, I am saddened by how the greed of gain caused us to sacrifice the well-being of individuals.<\/p>\n

As communities, we are all unconsciously or consciously seeking a foundation or a platform in which to cast our roles in developing our community.\u00a0 The challenge is coming together in mind and spirit then having the ability to communicate the vision in which to build the imagined community.\u00a0 Through shared language and the ability to mass produce the beliefs is key to creating community.\u00a0 The emergence of the printing press was significant and had a major impact on creating communities, but I wonder what Anderson would say to the internet and social media.\u00a0 Thoughts, ideas, and visions for society\u00a0selecting community leaders (ahem..Trump) and changes, sweep with incredible speed through social media, and become “viral” as they reach people in the millions in just days or weeks.\u00a0 The ability to communicate effectively and efficiently is unparalleled to any time in history.\u00a0 The masses that can be reached in seconds is staggering to consider and powerful in building imagined communities.<\/p>\n

Again, the words of my teacher haunt me, with his definition of societies needing 3 elements: culture, language, and a religion.\u00a0 It’s as if social media is an Imagined Community, complete with it’s own abbreviated language: LOL, IDK, TTYl, and BTW. \u00a0Social media has it’s own culture, as people are reprimanded for over-posting or posting inappropriate materials, and editing their pictures to present the ideal image. Could religion be demonstrated in the worship of self or the image of a greater self, with the abundance of scantily clothed selfies shamelessly posted in order to get the most “likes”?<\/p>\n

Within marriage, family, and church, I strive to be a part of a peaceful community.\u00a0 Where love is the language commonly spoken, following the works of Jesus Christ is our culture, and worshiping our Creator as our friend and savior becomes our religion.\u00a0 If this becomes the foundation of community, I think social media, capitalism, and other forms of societal philosophies can be used to benefit the whole.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My 10th grade history teacher, Mr. Housewright\u2019s, words ring in my ears when reading Imagined Communities.\u00a0 When he asked what is capitalism based on that has built our American nation, we would stare blankly back at him. Then dramatically he would write one chalky, white word on the green chalkboard: GREED.\u00a0 This has always been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[583],"class_list":["post-10935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anderson","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10935\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}