Imagine what caused this mindset?

I was sitting down after a softball game last night I had played in, enjoying a beer and a brat (3 for 3 with 3 runs scored and 2 RBI‘s, 13-3 in five), when a conversation I overheard between my teammates left me speechless. They were discussing the fireworks show this past Friday that took place at the Springfield Bar softball diamond. The show was wonderful, the best I have ever seen only trumping last years, and opened with a patriotic moment of silence honoring those who have served in the name of our country. The Iraq war was on the minds of all those in the crowd no doubt, as the moment of silence was quickly segued into a stirring rendition of John Lennon’s Imagine, no accident by whomever arranged the music I would think. I felt the song was timely, and the message more important now than ever, which was why the impact on the conversation I overheard was so profound on myself. Our team had gathered in the stands behind home plate after the game, when a man in his early 30’s whom I didn’t know began conversing with a few others on my team, obviously on familiar terms with them. He said the show was great, but really questioned the playing of Imagine, for as we all know Imagine is a Communist song, and not really appropriate considering the Fourth of July and our war in Iraq. I was shocked. A song about peace, Humanism and a brotherhood of Man, likened to the propagandized misunderstanding of Communism so many in this country have taken to. Imagining nothing to kill or die for, as somehow, a negative.

John Lennon claimed the song was “an anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic song” and even likened it to the Communist Manifesto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagine_(song), but that doesn‘t lessen the message of the song. What fascinates me is the application to patriotism the one man claimed in denouncing the lyrics outright, as if one is more American by rejecting these values. As a refresher:

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one


Now if that’s being a Communist then count me in, though I hardly consider myself one. I am fascinated however with the mindset of the man who made this Communist jab, and what it says about the Dream that he and many of us are living in this country. There are many deceptions put forth by our ruling class that we all need to beware of and take action against. To begin with, Communism isn’t defined in this country as being an economic system which guarantees that the basic needs of a society are met over the wants and the greed of the elite, it is defined as a failed oppressive economic model, which just so happens to threaten the interests of the Capitalist elite. It is the same as with Socialism, both often claimed to be great in theory but failures in life. Very few understand that neither of these two models have ever been tested by a legitimate democratic government, as our government claims to be, and that the negative stigma each one possesses is due strictly to the propaganda funded by the elite in our country, who are personally threatened by such economic systems. It simply has become common knowledge in our country that Communism and Socialism are bad while Capitalism is good, which makes sense considering how black and white we’ve become philosophically.

I want to point out that all opinions are influenced, and that there is a basic responsibility we all have in researching the roots of our influences. John Lennon’s message may have been Communist in nature, but what that means to the man at the softball diamond is the issue at stake. Blanketed stereotypes have replaced education in so many cases of public debate. Fact is no longer an important part of opinion, where money has funded great false propaganda campaigns. This is the Dream that I speak of, the deceptive impressions our government has worked to create which favor the already prosperous. It has truly become a bad Dream when such an ‘abstraction and release from reality’ causes one to denounce Imagine for it‘s Communist, and therefore, harmful message.

Imagine that!