Discussion » Statements » Rosie's Corner » Was John Lennon a COMMUNIST or SOCIALIST?

Was John Lennon a COMMUNIST or SOCIALIST?

Imagine

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

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


.........
And the world will live as one.

Posted - July 17, 2019

Responses


  • 2706
    “Imagine there’s no heaven; it’s easy if you try. No hell below us; above us only sky.” Also no religion, no countries, no possessions, etc. Ah yes, an atheist’s and communist’s paradise on earth. And just as Karl Marx assured us, the result, if we someday join in the dream, “the world will live as one.” He was a communist, socialist, and who knows what else. What's kind of unnerving is that this song has become a national anthem heralding in the new year. John Lennon is asking us to imagine what our country would be like if we could get rid of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, not to mention the Bible, which repeatedly says, “The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.” We would have to delete Thomas Jefferson’s references to the “Creator” and to banish the notion of any rights endowed by the Creator. I repeat, John Lennon was a Communist, Socialist, and who knows what else.

     Truth be told, we've already gone too far down the road to Lennon’s dream world, and it’s time to make a U-turn before we suffer the consequences of other nations and peoples, many of whom have decided to turn back. Music is a powerful communicator and John Lennon used that power to communicate who and what he was and what he wanted to see happen. It passed because the message was hidden underneath pretty music.
      July 17, 2019 5:26 AM MDT
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  • 113301
    Wow! Thank you for your extensive answer ru and Happy Wednesday to you. However you are a little bit behind. Since trump took over America there is no Declaration of Independence and no Constitution. He doesn't like limitations so he has singlehandledly castrated both of them. He sez he is a Christian but I have never seen a more evil devilish Heathen that he is. He lies all the time. But I suppose since he says he is a Christian you believe his words and ignore his past. It's OK. That is your right. This post was edited by RosieG at July 17, 2019 5:40 AM MDT
      July 17, 2019 5:37 AM MDT
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  • 2706
    You're welcome. I hesitated about answering your question because I knew it was going to be a bit long but I did anyhow. :) Have a happy Wednesday.
      July 17, 2019 5:41 AM MDT
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  • 3680
    He was not singing about any one country, nor any one religion. So that song has nothing to do with your own country and your religious convictions. That's just one country and one individual's beliefs.

    The world is populated by very many nations embracing very diverse cultures, and a goodly number of religions with an equally diverse approach to two or three basic spiritual needs; but sadly, many of each cannot abide any of the others. That is the point of the song, nothing more.

    I do not know John Lennon's actual political beliefs though I do know that like his fellow-Beatles, he came from a very "working-class", traditionally Labour- but certainly not Communist- supporting area of a notionally-Christian, democratic country foreign to you. An actively Christian area too: their native City of Liverpool's range of sacred sites include both Anglican and Catholic cathedrals. Nor can you judge his political beliefs merely from one song's simple criticism of nationalism.

    Neither you nor I know what his religious beliefs really were. Those lyrics call only for an end to religious bigotry and its attendant quarrels; but admit this needing religions themselves to die out.

    That song is no more than a very idealist, rather naïve, wish for peace based on Mankind losing what it sees as two of its most corrosive own faults: nationalist bigotry and religious self-importance. (I see religion per se as merely a personal opinion; but too easily misused and abused by the wrong persons for very fallibly human ends including the suppression of rights you credit to your God.) Faults which totalitarian regimes of Left and Right, or Atheist and Theocratic, cultivate to the nth degree.

    You bitterly attack others singing it as a New Year Anthem. So what if they do? That's their choice, you don't have to join in;  but do you really think they stop to analyse its meaning? If they did they'd see Imagine for what it is: harmless, naïve idealism. I have heard many political /social songs come and go since the 1960s, but never known any of them genuinely to affect society - for good or ill. Including Imagine.

    Imagine is just a rather shallow pop song imagining the impossible. Don't be so bitter about it.
      July 18, 2019 4:29 PM MDT
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  • 32529
    Excellent. 

    I hate that song.
      July 18, 2019 4:43 PM MDT
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  • 2706
    Thank you. I never liked it either. I never liked the song My Sweet Lord by George Harrison either. Many thought he was singing about Jesus but he wasn't. He was singing about Hare Krishna (one needs to listen to the lyrics closely).
      July 19, 2019 7:09 AM MDT
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  • 32529
    Interesting....I do not know that song. I not a Beatles fan.

    .....

    I just looked up the lyrics and yeah pretty obvious he is not singing to Jesus. But rather to Krishna and other Hindu gods. This post was edited by my2cents at July 19, 2019 2:08 PM MDT
      July 19, 2019 7:39 AM MDT
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  • 2706
    I never liked the Beatles either. You are correct, he was singing about Hindu gods.
      July 19, 2019 2:10 PM MDT
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  • 14795
    Neither Rosie, he was just a famous great musician that got executed by some crank lunatic out for some kind of notoriety that should have walked the walk to Old Sparky many moons ago.... 
      July 18, 2019 4:55 PM MDT
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  • It's  just a bad song about a nihilist utopia.
      July 19, 2019 2:28 PM MDT
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