Posted on 08/06/2007 5:56:23 AM PDT by John Galt 72
Imagine Piano Celebrates John Lennons Absurd Magnum Opus
By Matt Carrothers
August 6, 2007
Forget ground surges, new military leaders, tapping terrorists phone calls, free elections, training Iraqi soldiers to defend their own country and any other tactic that is helping the U.S. defeat Islamic fascists. British pop music singer George Michael and his boyfriend Kenny Goss have a better idea to bring peace to the world John Lennons piano.
Michael owns the piano on which Lennon composed the song Imagine. Accompanied by white-gloved attendants and a music choreographer, the piano is touring the U.S. as the centerpiece of Michaels The Imagine Piano Peace Project. As Wall Street Journal writer Ann Zimmerman notes, This Steinway upright piano is showing up at some of the nations most grisly sites of violence, death and destruction . . . all sites of cruelty and murder.
Caroline True, the projects choreographer, says on the projects web site, Kenny and Georges deepest wish is to imagine a world of peace, a world without violence. And, likely, a world where undercover police officers in Los Angeles public park mens rooms have the decency to knock first.
Lennons piano has visited Dealey Plaza in Dallas, the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, the Oklahoma City Memorial and Virginia Tech University. Zimmerman wrote that a Virginia Tech graduate student spent over an hour with the piano. The student played a song she composed for a murdered friend, and described the hour as symbolic and healing.
The piano also visited the Texas State Penitentiary in an apparent protest of a death row inmates execution. Texas convict James Clark was put to death on April 11, 2007 for the 1993 robbery, rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl. When asked for his last statement before the execution Clark said, Uh, I dont know. Um, I dont know what to say. I dont know. I didnt know anybody was there. Howdy.
With the execution of James Clark, the death penalty maintains its 100 percent success rate of stopping a robber/murderer/rapist from ever robbing, murdering or raping again. In other words, the Texas justice system gave peace a chance.
Imagine, the anthem of every aging-leftist hippie, is perhaps the most absurd song ever written. Lennons magnum opus is an ode to atheism, communism, and the songwriters own ignorance of the forms of government, economic systems and faith traditions necessary to produce the peace and brotherhood the so-called smart Beatle dreamed of.
The song begins, Imagine theres no heaven/Its easy if you try. Judeo-Christian values inspired Americas founding fathers, and remain the bedrock of every free, economically prosperous and peace-seeking nation.
Once Heaven is imagined away, Lennon then envisioned a one-world government: Imagine theres no countries/It isnt hard to do/Nothing to kill or die for/And no religion too/Imagine all the people/Living life in peace.
Lennons folly was that the utopia he envisioned would result in utter chaos. Our Cold War victory over the Soviet Union exposed the horrors of totalitarian regimes that attempt to eradicate religion and economic freedom. Peace results when the citizens of orderly representational republics engage daily in free-market commerce with each other and across national boundaries.
Continuing on this communist rant, the song says, Imagine no possessions/I wonder if you can/No need for greed or hunger/A brotherhood of man.
With no possessions, how will individuals generate the capital and income needed to alleviate greed or hunger? The collectivist system has been tried, and it has failed every time.
Lennon concluded his hallucinogenic diatribe with, I hope someday youll join us/And the world will live as one.
Notice that the social-engineering dreamers never want to live as one in a world dominated by peaceable, capitalist, free-trading republics rooted in the rule of law and Judeo-Christian values. Ironically, John Lennon is seen in one of his most famous photographs leaning against a wall with his arms folded, a crucifixion necklace around his neck, wearing a white t-shirt that reads, New York City.
New York City. As in, the capital city of capitalism.
Another ironic twist in The Imagine Piano Peace Project is that the piano has only stopped at American sites of violence, death, destruction, cruelty and murder. Again, history shows that the most violent, destructive and cruelest places on Earth have existed and continue to exist under the communist and totalitarian regimes Lennons most famous song exalts. Atheist, one-world loving liberals have always loathed the U.S., but despite their shrill protests they never seem quite ready to leave the protected confines of their own private Dakotas.
Instead of writing dopey, acid-induced tributes to Godless, authoritarian utopias, John Lennon should have got back to where he once belonged writing great songs with Paul, George and Ringo about holding hands and the evil taxman.
I blame Yoko.
© 2007 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.
Ringo's charisma made him a popular performer before he joined the Beatles. Lennon said Ringo was the only one of the four he was absolutely sure would have been a success had he not met the others. Perhaps he was just being modest and sticking up for Ringo but it was an interesting comment.
Lennon typlified the utter hypocrisy of these brainless rock stars. Not all of them are brainless however, as proven by Alice Cooper. To paraphrase him, “if you look to these moron rock stars for direction in who to vote for, you’re a bigger moron yourself”. Cooper, incidently, has always been able to seriously rock, and his band back in the early 70’s were GREAT!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.