'Imagine' p*ssing in the wind

John Lennon wrote a great song. It's a great a sentiment, but that's what it is, IMO, a sentiment. It's not a philosophy. It's not the answer.

I think modern liberalism has internalized this song as *the answer*. Let's face it, if there's three things that we as liberals feel viscerally uncomfortable with it's nationalism, capitalism, and religion. We're hung up on this trinity, fixated on it like pitbulls, chewing away at them all them time.

It's like we think that if we can get rid of, or drastically limit, these three things the world will automatically just be a better place.

I beg to differ. I think this is scapegoating. I think this is letting human nature off way to easy. I think it's letting your own self off way to easy.

You could strip the world of nations, economics, and religion, and not much would change. People would find new reasons to exploit, new reasons to hate, new reasons to fight. The part of human nature that does these things is endlessly adaptable.

As a Christian, I call it original sin. If you're a pagan, or a secular humanist, you call it what you want. No reason to get hung up on words.

I'm not saying we shouldn't fight the increasing corporate power over our lives, or fight for minimum wage laws. I'm just saying capitalism isn't enemy. Neither is nationalism, or religion. Or any other 'ism.' All those things are just mirages. You strip them down, replace it with something else, it's just rearranging the silverware on the table.

No one appears to know the 'answer' (if there is one). As a Christian I see hope in the Sermon on the Mount. But it's kinda like Bob Dylan wrote in his song Up to Me: 'We heard the Sermon on the Mount and we knew it was too complex/It didn't amount to anything more, than what the broken glass reflects.'

IMO fixating on the three things Lennon talks about in the song, just scapegoating them endlessly, truly is, as they say, just 'p*ssing in the wind.'

Imagine

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 isnt hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...

Imagine no possesions,
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 Im not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.

Are you a liberal or a libertarian?

as long as it doesn't interfere in public policy.

Sid