First Entry: When a pundit is reduced to using John Lennon's "Imagine" as the basis of a column, it's time for a very long vacation.
Perhaps a, uh, Permanent Vacation.
Damnit, I almost spilled my drink over that.
Chortle.
I've always been puzzled that so many people believe that "Imagine" is some great artifact of philosophical profoundity. It's the "Seinfeld" of classic rock, a song about nothing. As a much greater writer than I recently put it:
"Spoken like a man with no beliefs. Or, more accurately, spoken like someone who thinks that line above demonstrates some sort of intellectual sophistication lost on people who do the whole work-kids-church thing. Trust me, Harry - what someone believes is of great consequence. And if your society believes nothing it ends up making its last stand in the Temple of No Particular Belief System with the squiddies hammering on the door, possessed of a terrible certainty: they believe you should die."
"Imagine there's no countries, "
And go ahead and make yet another one? what is this guy on?
The truly sad part about that column is that I bet he thought his opening graph was brilliant. And so did an editor.
Bonus points for coupling the "Imagine" quote with the Karl Marx line on religion. Except, of course, that in the present war one would more nearly say that, for our enemies at least, religion is the PCP of the people.
Imagine there's no (terrorists)-
Oh yea, that was pre-9/11 thinking
Sometimes it's important to have a "peace process," even when the prospects for real peace seem slim. It's like imagining the existence of an afterlife -- the very notion of a blessed end state gives people a reason not to do terrible things in the here and now.
I'm speechless at how dumb this is.
No kidding, Tuna. There are a billion reasons why I don't do terrible things here and now, and not one of them has to do with any perception of an afterlife. Stunningly stupid, that comment.
I prefer the following alternate lyrics to "Imagine":
Imaging no possessions. No food or water too.
No children's toys or comforts. And there's not much to do.
Imagine all the people living in the dirt.
You may say I'm a cynic, yeah I'll admit I'm one,
I've seen great ideas ruin millions of lives, and this is just another one!
