Christmas is always a confusing time of year for rock stations. Oldies, 80s, metal rockers, you name it, they don’t know what to play this time of year.
Some fall back on Pat Benatar’s “Little Drummer Boy” or that great song from The Waitresses.
But far too many play John Lennon’s “Imagine” over and over again. When you ask them why they would play such an offensive song, they think you are the one on drugs. But it is about peace, man, and isn’t that what Christmas is about?
Actually no. But that is another story.
Let’s stick with Lennon’s Leninist anthem for a moment. First, read the lyrics:
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 that 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 that 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, no heaven… no religion… Translation: imagine if all you Christians went away, on your way out had to listen to this tripe during one of your highest holidays.
Second, Lennon sees religion as simply “something to kill or die for,” instead of a source of charity, free medical care, homeless shelters, homes for battered women, and so on. The charitable giving of religious people is simply astounding.
As for the hippies, they signed up for welfare and frequented the free clinics–they didn’t found or fund them.
I could go on. And maybe I will. Let me know if you share my disgust with this overplayed hippie hymn.
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3 Comments
1. Mark William Paules:Disgusted? No, I can’t raise the emotion. Pathetic? Yes, coming from an adult such lyrics are the mark of arrested psychological development. It’s the mindset of an eternal adolescent, an idealistic fantasy.
No heaven? What Lennon means is “no God” and therefore no restraint which is all the left really wants anyway. It’s license to do whatever you want: smoke dope, fornicate indiscriminately, and avoid any mention of duty or obligation. A hedonist’s paradise can only appeal to a juvenile mind.
No nations? What sort of person still believes in Utopian fantasies during middle age? Only someone who has no appreciation for human nature. And no knowledge of history. Ask Europe what happens when you abandon national sovereignty to an unelected bureaucracy. What institution other than a nation-state has ever been capable of defeating tyranny?
No possessions? Ask a kulak (if you can find one) what that means in practice. Private property is a precondition for prosperity. Collectivism is a recipe for poverty. Absent property rights the means of production grind to a halt.
But I’m probably preaching to the choir. Those who don’t understand these basic principles are too besotted with their own moral vanity to apprehend the truth. Let them live in a fool’s paradise if they can. Eventually reality will intrude and demand the price of such decadence. And the payback will be harsh. I pity them.
Dec 25, 2007 - 1:57 pm 2. David Thomson:John Lennon was a vastly wealthy man who could essentially make his immediate world revolve around him. Fellow singers Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson did the same thing. Indeed, they all became eternal adolescents. Sadly, the self absorbed Lennon was able to convince the common folk that they could also indulge in fantasies like dishonest pacifism and no cost promiscuity. The results have been tragic.
Dec 26, 2007 - 10:22 am 3. sam cassiano:i’m afraid it is you who are confused. john lennon’s “imagine” is not promoted or even programmed as a christmas song, holiday or otherwise. how could you misinterpret it. it’s called “imagine” for a reason, a reason you obviously don’t seem to understand. you must be confusing it with “happy Xmas (war is over)”
Dec 28, 2007 - 5:07 pm