(Kinser)
You obviously didn't listen to it long enough because he was talking specifically about the content of the lyrics. Largely speaking he was exposing the song as the communist propaganda it is.
I find that anyone who feels to need to say they aren't disparaging the USMC usually proceeds to disparage them. There is nothing wrong with the Marine's Hymn.
[/quote]
The lyrics fit the USMC. The musical meter does not fit the norm for song of one note per syllable (opera and choral works of religion are exempt from that standard, of course). In theory the music could be altered to fit the words, but that would violate a tradition. A tradition that works well is not to be cast off without compelling reason. But in criticizing the Marine Hymn I am acting as a music critic.
There's the odd case that the anthem of the old and discredited DDR Auferstanden aus Ruinen fit the meter of the national anthem of the German Federal Republic, and there was some short discussion of grafting the anthem of the German Democratic Republic into the Deutschlandlied, using the music of the Deutschlandlied.
But back to Imagine. Hardly an entity has been more frequently used as a pretext for economic exploitation than Almighty God, particularly in the demand by economic elites that the rest of Humanity suffer economic deprivation on behalf those elites so that God will reward those who suffer for a rapacious, cruel class of exploiters and punish anyone who falls short of or rebels against the demands of those elites will spend an eternity in Hell. I can't speak for God Almighty, but I have an interpretation of the commandment
Thou shalt not steal (Exodus 20:17) seems to have a corollary in a deprecation of economic exploitation in the sense of making someone dependent and helpless to change his lot so that the exploiter can profiteer from the victim's helplessness. An exploiter is a thief, even if more subtle in his stealing than the sneaky or forceful grabber of others property. Normal commerce is not theft, but peonage and outright enslavement are theft.
Whether God exists or does not, people have presumable responsibilities to others.
You obviously didn't listen to it long enough because he was talking specifically about the content of the lyrics. Largely speaking he was exposing the song as the communist propaganda it is.
I find that anyone who feels to need to say they aren't disparaging the USMC usually proceeds to disparage them. There is nothing wrong with the Marine's Hymn.
[/quote]
The lyrics fit the USMC. The musical meter does not fit the norm for song of one note per syllable (opera and choral works of religion are exempt from that standard, of course). In theory the music could be altered to fit the words, but that would violate a tradition. A tradition that works well is not to be cast off without compelling reason. But in criticizing the Marine Hymn I am acting as a music critic.
There's the odd case that the anthem of the old and discredited DDR Auferstanden aus Ruinen fit the meter of the national anthem of the German Federal Republic, and there was some short discussion of grafting the anthem of the German Democratic Republic into the Deutschlandlied, using the music of the Deutschlandlied.
But back to Imagine. Hardly an entity has been more frequently used as a pretext for economic exploitation than Almighty God, particularly in the demand by economic elites that the rest of Humanity suffer economic deprivation on behalf those elites so that God will reward those who suffer for a rapacious, cruel class of exploiters and punish anyone who falls short of or rebels against the demands of those elites will spend an eternity in Hell. I can't speak for God Almighty, but I have an interpretation of the commandment
Thou shalt not steal (Exodus 20:17) seems to have a corollary in a deprecation of economic exploitation in the sense of making someone dependent and helpless to change his lot so that the exploiter can profiteer from the victim's helplessness. An exploiter is a thief, even if more subtle in his stealing than the sneaky or forceful grabber of others property. Normal commerce is not theft, but peonage and outright enslavement are theft.
Whether God exists or does not, people have presumable responsibilities to others.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.