Last night, as I was watching the election results, I couldn't help but think about how the nation is so utterly connected through television. One could think of the election as something out of the ordinary-- it only happens every four years. It seems to be a discontinuity in an otherwise continuous system. This discontinuity really overshadows everything else on television, newspapers, and any other sort of media. It creates one humongous imagined community-- I don't know if I've talked to one person who wasn't watching some kind of news channel last night at 11.
Our thoughts and emotions are controlled by the television as well. Not only do we feel like we are a part of our nation by watching the television, but we also allow our news station to dictate things to us. The moment I heard that Obama had won the presidency (a projected outcome, by the news station... not concrete yet), I jumped for joy. Literally. Those who were a part of my imagined community ran outside toward the main green to jump around and be merry.
My point is that this was all dictated by the television. I could not ignore this; it seemed to really connect to last weeks readings. It's crazy the way that television is so omnipresent!