CAMPUS

Why I Refuse to “Imagine”

Watching the revelers in Time Square last night, I was inspired with the usual feelings of optimism and hope for the new year. What confused me about last night, and every other New Year’s celebration in NYC, was the playing of the song Imagine during the closing seconds of 2008. Simply put, I think that the world John Lennon describes is not the liberal utopia that so many on the left blindly take it to be, but rather a theoretical hell that is as ridiculous as it is horrifying.

What Lennon describes is an atheistic communism. A world with “no possessions” combined with the concept that there is “no heaven” nor any “hell” can lead to no other scenario. The problem, of course, is that humanity has already tried this sadistic form of government under Stalin and Lenin with horrific results. I don’t find Lennon’s “utopia” to be a very inspiring New Year’s wish. In fact, I would never wish it upon even my worst enemy.

If anything, I think that this just shows how our society has fallen into the trap of following pop culture regardless of the effects. Later today, my friends will surely come to me with the counter-argument of “its just a song, Michael. What could be the harm in singing a song?” Well, its not just a song, its an ideology. We cannot afford to be so superficial that we are willing to accept “whatever sounds good” from our pop icons, even if these songs profess to undermine everything that we stand for and believe in. Surely those that fought hand-to-hand against communism and atheism in far-away places such as Poland and Russia see Lennon’s song as being composed of more than just a sweet rhythm.