Imagine...

For a lot of people, but not me, John Lennon’s song, Imagine, represents a musical manifesto for the good life, the secular life. The first verse starts promisingly: imagine there’s no heaven, imagine there’s no hell. Living for today: fine. Imagine no religion: even better. If the song had stopped right there, I’d be an enthusiast too.

But it goes on: You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one, I hope some day you'll join us, and the world will be as one. Move over Gandhi, move over Martin Luther King. It’s like Lennon is imagining himself to be the first and only ‘visionary’ who has entertained an idea as novel as world peace. Asking the rest of us to “join him” is so condescending that it takes the breath away. Finally, as a man who banked millions from Beatles records, and the music he made as a solo artist, he has the gall to imagine “no possessions”. Did he “share” his money? Some of it, no doubt. But the narcissism of the lyric makes me want to throw up. Imagine no John Lennon; it’s easy if you try…

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 some day 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 some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Pic licensed today of Long Meg and her Daughters, near Penrith...