By John Lennon
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one
Okay, so the suggestion here is that people divorcing themselves from all forms of religion and embracing atheism will result in peace and love. Well, various nations have tried that on for size... let's see how it worked out for them, shall we.
Revolutionary France decided to get rid of Christianity; the authorities seized Church lands, abolished the Catholic church, and exiled or killed the priests. They even replaced the Christian calendar with a secular one, reckoning years from the start of the Revolution. Was the result a post-religion Utopia? Not quite; during the Reign of Terror- which lasted approximately two years- over 40,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands were imprisoned. Let's contrast this with the Spanish Inquisition, which is one of those events which anti-religionists always throw out to bolster their arguments. Admittedly it was not Catholicism's finest moment, but the estimated body count for the Inquisition was between 3,000 and 5,000 over a period of about 350 years. It's difficult to see how this could be regarded as worse than the bloodiness of the Revolution, but perhaps that incident was an aberration; there are other atheist states we can examine.
The Khmer Rouge in the atheist state of Cambodia under Pol Pot killed between 1.5 and 3 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1975. It's estimated that in China, Mao's "Great Leap Forward" killed 45 million people in four years. I could continue with Cuba, North Korea, Albania, East Germany... but why bother. It's obvious to anyone with a functioning brain cell that lack of religious belief does not equate with a peaceful, non-violent society. Rather, the civilizations of the west which are by any measure freer, more peaceful, more democratic, and have a better quality of life at all levels of society have evolved from the Judeo-Christioan tradition. This isn't to say that they are perfect, and have never made mistakes or taken missteps, but they are better, and to deny the obvious is intellectually dishonest.
Well, we don't really have to imagine this, do we. There are plenty of wicked and irresponsible people about who subscribe to this nihilistic philosophy. Why not spend like drunken sailors, running up the debt and sticking the next generation with the bill? I had been under the impression that The Ant & The Grasshopper was a cautionary tale, but- according to Lennon- the grasshopper's attitude is apparently the correct one. If we can have a good or easy time now, why worry about what happens when we're gone- especially if we haven't bothered to have any kids. Why face hard and unpleasant things like the threat of radical Islam when we can kick the can down the road a bit and leave it for someone else to deal with. This philosophy not only liberates people from concern for the future, but also from having a sense of responsibility to the past and to those who built and defended our way of life. If all that matters is "now", then who cares how our country got to where it is or where it goes from here. "Living for today" means being irresponsible, ignorant, and ungrateful.
This may be the most cowardly and despicable line in the song. Of course no one wants to be put in a situation where killing or dying becomes necessary, but one is not always given an option. What this phrase suggests is that nothing- not even your family and freedom- is worth fighting for. Maybe there are people who actually believe this, but in my opinion, anyone who would stand by and watch his family be violently attacked and not do whatever it took to protect them is a pretty worthless human being. This sentiment is one reason why I don't have much use for Mahatma Gandhi, by the way. During World War II, he wrote an open letter to the British nation urging them to surrender to the Nazis: “Let them take possession of your beautiful island with your many beautiful buildings. You will give all these, but neither your souls, nor your minds.” All I can say is, thank goodness the Englishman in charge was Winston Churchill and not John Lennon, otherwise we might all be goose-stepping around now. Oh, incidentally, Gandhi also urged the Jews to all commit suicide so that the Nazis wouldn't have the satisfaction of killling them. That guy was just full of good ideas, but I digress... the point is, you can talk pacifism and non-violence: you may even be able to practice it. But you'd better hope you're living some place where there are others willing to take up arms and do violence on your behalf, otherwise the only peace you'll see is the one you're resting in.
Oh by the way, these are some pictures of Tittenhurst Park, Lennon's house where- as I mentioned previously- he wrote Imagine.
So those are my thoughts on Imagine. To sum up, it's a trash song with a smarmy, dishonest message and John Lennon was an overrated hypocrite. A word of advice: one shouldn't warble castigations of capitalism and materialism while sitting in one's mansion on a private estate. It's poor optics and shows a complete lack of self-awareness. Also, I advise avoiding Imagine like the aural plague it is.