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Instead of a thought experiment on the unattainable, why not on the potential?

Well, as you say, John can write about what he likes. And nobody has to listen to it. I just don't understand people getting so upset over it. Johgn was poetically expressing a Utopian ideal. As someone upstream mentioned, where is the criticism of songs like "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony" or "Let there be peace on Earth." Where's the harm? I'm sure Engel could write similar pieces deconstructing these songs (Teach the world to sing in perfect harmony? But lots of people in the world hate each other. And in what language would we be singing? America's? Saudi Arabia's? Iceland's? Cuba's? Like to build the world a home and furnish it with love? Where would everyone sit? Etc, etc.) Songs like this aren't meant to be deconstructed line by line and applied to the real world. Particularly true in Lennon's case when you consider that the title of the song in question is "Imagine."