{"id":980,"date":"2011-09-11T00:00:40","date_gmt":"2011-09-11T06:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/?p=980"},"modified":"2026-07-01T12:37:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T18:37:22","slug":"imagining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/imagining\/","title":{"rendered":"Imagining"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>So it’s the 10th anniversary of 9\/11, and I have nothing profound to say. I’ve already said marginally profound things on this subject here<\/a> and here<\/a>, and the Internet and the media are full of tributes and remembrances, so I thought I’d take a different tack in my approach today. <\/p>\n

One of my memories, post 9\/11, was a telethonesque attempt by celebrities to raise money for the victims. I remember, even then, thinking that the post 9\/11 unity that everyone was so excited about was wafer thin. The vast majority of America wanted us to fight back, and fight back hard, but America’s celebrities disagreed from the outset. I remember Michael Stipe, lead singer of R.E.M., pleading for a nonviolent response so as not to extend the “circle of hate,” or some such crap. It wasn’t long after that singer Sheryl Crow wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “War Is Not The Answer” and said the best way to avoid war is to not have enemies. (I loved Ann Coulter’s response to that one when she said something along the lines of “we won’t have enemies, because we’re going to kill them.”)<\/p>\n

I recall, however, the most rancid response to 9\/11 on that telethon was when Neil Young took to the piano and sang a solemn version of John Lennon’s “Imagine.”<\/p>\n

This brings me to my thesis for the day, which is that “Imagine” is a truly foul little ditty. <\/p>\n

Cosmetically, the recording is bland and amateurish, with the “highlight” being John Lennon’s limp, mopey lead vocal. What happened to that distinctive nasal bite that was the hallmark of so many of the Fab Four’s hits? It disappears in all of Lennon’s solo recordings. He performs with zero energy, as if he’s singing the song in a rest home to geezers falling asleep face first in their soup. <\/p>\n

But the delivery isn’t the real problem. It’s the philosophy that reeks. <\/p>\n

“Imagine there’s no heaven,” he begins, and, already, we’re off to a bad start. “It’s easy if you try,” he tells us, and he’s right. If you look at crippling poverty and cruelty and natural disasters and disease and bullies and dog poop and sharks and those little bugs from The Wrath of Khan<\/em> that crawl into your ears and take over your brain, you can easily envision that the world has no divine guidance, that all evil will go unredressed, that life is nasty, brutish, and short, as well as pointless, and that nothing you think, say, or do matters, now and forever. <\/p>\n

Lennon sings about “no hell below us,” which means people need not fear if they do truly reprehensible things. “Above us only sky,” he says. “Imagine all the people living for today.” You mean I don’t have to worry about tomorrow’s consequences, because there won’t be any?<\/p>\n

All right. I’m imagining it, and it ain’t pretty. <\/p>\n

See, imagining that there IS a heaven allows many to deal with the injustices of mortality, and it makes for better people and a better world. Yes, you have 9\/11 zealots who imagine a heaven filled with 72 virgins if they kill infidels, and that’s a bad thing. But eliminating heaven altogether will mean that people will have no check on their cruelty. As the philosopher once said, “If God is dead, everything is permitted.” So instead of waiting for heavenly virgins, these creeps will have to defile 72 people here on Earth, because they’re living for today. That’s life with no heaven or hell. That’s life with no God. Imagine that. <\/p>\n

“Imagine there’s no countries,” Lennon continues. OK. I’m doing it. All right, that’s not so bad. “It isn’t hard to do,” he says. I suppose it isn’t. Maybe we’re getting somewhere. <\/p>\n

Oh, wait. Here comes the next two lines. “Nothing to kill or die for\/And no religion, too.”<\/p>\n

Aargh. We’re back to godlessness again. And why would it be great to have “nothing to kill or die for?” I’d both kill and\/or die for my family, for instance, because I love them that intently. I hope I have to do neither, but I’d be more than willing to do so if it were necessary. Having “nothing to kill or die for” means you’re living a life devoid of the meaning necessary to make it worthwhile. That’s not a pleasant thing to imagine. <\/p>\n

But then he asks us to “Imagine all the people living life in peace.” Why would a purposeless, godless life be a peaceful one? I’m remembering living through the looting in the L.A. Riots back in ’92. Lots of people there had nothing to kill or die for, and they certainly weren’t bound by the moral strictures of religion, so they were more than happy to rip off television sets and set fire to other people’s businesses. <\/p>\n

Ah, but Lennon addresses that in the third verse. “Imagine no possessions,” he tells us. “I wonder if you can.”<\/p>\n

Yes, I can. It’s called “poverty.” But no, Lennon insists, that’s not what he means. “No need for greed or hunger,” he claims. “A brotherhood of man.”<\/p>\n

I’ve had an ongoing debate about this with my Esteemed Colleague, who has taken to Soviet-style Communism as the answer to all of life’s inequities and problems. Lennon seems to be agreeing with him here – in fact, one might retitle this little jingle as Lennon’s “Ode to Communism.” <\/p>\n

Well, it might surprise you to learn that I agree with the underlying premise of what Lennon sings when he asks us to “imagine all the people sharing all the world.” I follow a faith that believes in the principles of Zion, which is described as follows in the scriptures:<\/p>\n

And the Lord called his people ZION, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them. – Moses 7:18<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yep! I’m a commie, too, I guess. Except note that one clause in there about how they “dwelt in righteousness.” How does one dwell in righteousness if one rejects God? See, to reach the ends that Lennon and I both agree would be truly nifty, one has to reconsider the means. Lennon thinks rejection of God is the route to Zion, and I think exactly the opposite. Considering my options, I like what I’m imagining a whole lot better. <\/p>\n

Now, you may say I’m a dreamer. But, as it turns out, I’m not the only one. So I hope some day you’ll join us, and the world will live as one, and we won’t have to listen to John Lennon whine through “Imagine” ever, ever again. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"So it's the 10th anniversary of 9\/11, and I have nothing profound to say. I've already said marginally profound things on this subject here<\/a> and here<\/a>, and the Internet and the media are full of tributes and remembrances, so I thought I'd take a different tack in my approach today. One of my memories, ... Read more<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=980"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5014,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980\/revisions\/5014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}