10-07-2017, 12:07 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-07-2017, 12:20 PM by Eric the Green.)
"Imagine" is a landmark song that has become one of the most popular oldies, despite or perhaps because of its lyrics that challenge our assumptions of how life has to be. I never thought it was such a great song, musically. In the late sixties, though, many of us "imagined" and "dreamed" many of the same things John wrote about, and probably some people still do. That's why the song remains popular, and why he said he's not the only dreamer.
What does the first verse mean? No religion? Given John's interest in spiritual matters, as exemplified in his and The Beatles' best piece, "Tomorrow Never Knows," which quotes the Tibetan Book of the Dead, he didn't mean no spirituality. He meant no traditional religion, with the false myths of heaven and hell, and the promise of pie in the sky when you die. Above all, he meant how religion is used to divide us, the same way the idea of nations is used. Our identification with national and religious groups causes wars, which if we realized we are one people, we wouldn't fight. This seems a practical idea, although it will take time.
But what about his last vision, no possessions? He certainly didn't mean all possessions should be owned by the state. He meant something like what the hippie communes were trying. It's possible it might happen someday, but for now, I "imagine" that the idea of possessions helps us to take responsibility for what we own. As a vision though, if we learn to identify all the world as the possession of each one of us, and that we all share the same world, this might come true someday too. It doesn't mean we can't be entrepreneurs, but it would change how we think about what we earn; that we are working for the good of all. That's a tall order, I'm sure. But worth imagining. And today, the excessive greed of those who possess the most capital and own the most property, and those who to preserve that greed impose trickle-down economics on us in the name of Reagan, Ayn Rand, Mises, Hayek and Milton Friedman, is the main cause of hunger and poverty in the world.
Imagining a better world, is how we get there. We don't have to have the same visions as John Lennon, but the more we imagine, the more we can create. And the more we can be free of philosophies that discount the power of imagination to change the world, or those who promote the power of fear to keep it the way it is.
What does the first verse mean? No religion? Given John's interest in spiritual matters, as exemplified in his and The Beatles' best piece, "Tomorrow Never Knows," which quotes the Tibetan Book of the Dead, he didn't mean no spirituality. He meant no traditional religion, with the false myths of heaven and hell, and the promise of pie in the sky when you die. Above all, he meant how religion is used to divide us, the same way the idea of nations is used. Our identification with national and religious groups causes wars, which if we realized we are one people, we wouldn't fight. This seems a practical idea, although it will take time.
But what about his last vision, no possessions? He certainly didn't mean all possessions should be owned by the state. He meant something like what the hippie communes were trying. It's possible it might happen someday, but for now, I "imagine" that the idea of possessions helps us to take responsibility for what we own. As a vision though, if we learn to identify all the world as the possession of each one of us, and that we all share the same world, this might come true someday too. It doesn't mean we can't be entrepreneurs, but it would change how we think about what we earn; that we are working for the good of all. That's a tall order, I'm sure. But worth imagining. And today, the excessive greed of those who possess the most capital and own the most property, and those who to preserve that greed impose trickle-down economics on us in the name of Reagan, Ayn Rand, Mises, Hayek and Milton Friedman, is the main cause of hunger and poverty in the world.
Imagining a better world, is how we get there. We don't have to have the same visions as John Lennon, but the more we imagine, the more we can create. And the more we can be free of philosophies that discount the power of imagination to change the world, or those who promote the power of fear to keep it the way it is.