Absolutism created meaning through bureaucratic pilgrimages that fostered solidarity

Evidence

The inner thrust of absolutism was to create a unified apparatus of power, controlled directly by, and loyal to, the ruler over against a decentralized, particularistic feudal nobility. Unification meant internal interchangeability of men and documents. Human interchangeability was fostered by the recruitment – naturally to varying extents – of homines novi, who, just for that reason, had no independent power of their own, and so could serve as emanations of their masters’ wills. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 225

Categorization

• XREF: The pilgrimage-as-meaning-creating framework connects directly to Anderson’s earlier argument about religious pilgrimages to Mecca/Rome (paragraph 224) and to the general thesis about imagined communities formed through shared journeys. — connects to: Educational and administrative pilgrimages built national imagined communities — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 604

Related

• Educational and administrative pilgrimages built national imagined communities (similarity 0.83)
• Shared journeys among strangers create the sense of an imagined community (similarity 0.82)
• Absolute-monarchy bureaucracy turns career advancement into a shared pilgrim’s road (similarity 0.78)