Imagine That
I've always hated the John Lennon song 'Imagine'. My hatred stems not from its insipid lyrics, but rather how the song has become a rallying cry for those "concerned" with the state of the world. I have often wondered if these people actually ever sat down for a moment and pondered what kind of world it really would be if Lennon's dreams came true. In high school I recall hearing the song at a memorial service. At a CATHOLIC high school. What part of "no religion" don't you people understand?
Today Joel Engle imagines "Imagine" in a piece at the Weekly Standard:
Imagine there's no countries . . . Nothing to kill or die for / No religion too / Imagine all the people / living life in peace.
Hmmm. A single, borderless entity. No passports or customs inspectors rifling through your luggage. So far, so good. But wait a second. By what laws, rules, cultures, customs, and mores would we all be living? America's? Saudi Arabia's? Iceland's? Cuba's? Obviously, organizing billions of people from different traditions around a common mindset would require some serious coercion that progressives (many of whom will be out in force tonight with lighted candles) keep reminding us is not our prerogative--not even in countries with brutal dictators. And if there's nothing to kill or die for, then there's really nothing to live for, either--not equality, not liberty, not justice. It bears remembering that those young Englishmen who declared, in the 1930s, that they wouldn't fight for king and country did nothing for the cause of peace; quite the opposite. Lennon's own Oxford Pledge may warm the hearts of pacifists, but it's true music to a tyrant's ears.
Check out some alternative lyrics for 'Imagine' here.
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