Totally agree.
However, IMO, John was an anti-social revolutionary, with communist atheistic tendencies - even while writing the line (ostensibly) against Mao in the song “Revolution.”
I would add cynical in the extreme. Lennon might have sung about an ideal utopia but I don't think he believed it. I think he wanted to but his natural cynicism would not allow it. He surrounded himself with true believers in the social causes but I don't think he ever truly bought in himself. I think this is why John Lennon was in a state of internal conflict his whole life and such an unhappy person.
I absolutely despise and utterly condemn “Imagine.”
Don't disagree on that. My only positive statement on that song is an observation, not an approval of its content.
It is a perverse subversive, anti-American, atheistic song, written by a fatalist, whose plunge into the hedonism typical to the drug culture poisoned his soul. In fact, it was this song that became the chief driver of my eventual disdain for John Lennon as a person. I consider him an anti-American subversive, who, while benefiting from the freedoms and fruits of capitalism, yet hypocritically acted to undermine both capitalism and religion.
You know that this actually proves my point about this song having powerful lyrics. Obviously, John Lennon wrote some lyrics that resonated deeply with you. If John Lennon couldn't communicate complex thoughts in simple phrases, he wouldn't have gotten such a strong reaction from you and others. Had the song a set of vapid lyrics, it would have been ignored because there is nothing else about it that is memorable. Being anti-social as you stated above, Lennon wouldn't care whether you agreed or disagreed with him as long as you heard his message. Isn't that exactly what a songwriter wants? Has a McCartney song ever elicited such emotion from you, either positively or negatively? Lennon could elicit emotional responses in a way that McCartney never could which is why I consider Lennon the superior lyricist.
Actually, three of Paul’s creations influenced me quite a bit: Yesterday - a favorite of my Dad’s; Michelle, and Eleanor Rigby (both written mostly by Paul, but credited to Lennon-McCartney).
However, what set me off with Imagine was the day that I heard a modernist (liberal) Catholic priest cite the song in his homily (sermon) as though it were something wonderful - an incredible act of narcissistic stupidity. The obscene irony, of a Catholic priest ingratiating himself to a song that “imagines” how wonderful life would be without God, apparently did not matter to this liberal fool.