Better to be an "Imaginer" than a cynic

That's this poster right here:



I've had this one for years. It's an old favorite. I've been a John Lennon fan most of my life. In high school some thought I even looked like him. A friend who was running for class president or something even put up posters -- without my approval (though I loved the surprise) -- with Lennon's face and some phrase like "David Swindle thinks So-and-so would be a great President."

I've actually been listening to a lot of John Lennon lately, mainly the albums "Imagine" and "Plastic Ono Band." The song "Gimme Some Truth" has been my main favorite. It just seems timely in our current political age:

i'm sick and tired of hearing
things
from uptight-short sighted-
narrow minded hypocritics
all i want is the truth
just give me some truth

....

no short haired-yellow bellied
son of tricky dicky
is gonna mother hubbard
soft soap me

I particularly appreciate the whole "son of tricky dicky" thing. I've also been listening to "Jealous Guy"
which I find to be one of the most beautiful, gentle songs every recorded.

And then I read a column with a different take on one of my hero's masterpieces:

I hate the song "Imagine." You know, the one with John Lennon playing the piano and singing about his dream for world peace. I hate it. This is part one of a two-part column.

As an often brutal critic of op/ed column leads (and leads in general) I have to say that's a pretty good one. It definitely grabs one's attention.

The columnist is a senior journalism major named Joanna Lees from my alma mater (Ball State.)

The column then discusses such things as:
1. A conversation she had with a family member in the military who claims that the US should have mandatory military service. (She disagrees.)
2. Her view that such an endeavor wouldn't work out that well since anti-military types wouldn't be all that up for it.
3. How comfortable and complacent our country and generation is.
4. How we forget that people had to die to maintain our freedom.
5. The so-called "clash of civilizations" between Western democracy and Islamic radicalism.

She returns to "Imagine" in her conclusion:

That's why I can't stand "Imagine." Lennon envisions a world where there's "Nothing to kill or die for," where the heights of human achievement aren't worth saving. If there's nothing to die for, then there's nothing to live for. The idea behind "Imagine" is an adolescent world view, one in which there are no conflicts because no one cares enough to have strong emotions. It's a utopia.

And utopias, frankly, suck. Stay tuned for part two next week.

Columns that actually have interesting/challenging ideas are rare in college journalism and punditry. And so I thought that this evening we might consider "Imagine" and utopianism.

First, some complete lyrics:

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 that 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 that 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

Also, a few definitions:

u·to·pi·a (y-tp-)
n.
1.
a. often Utopia An ideally perfect place, especially in its social, political, and moral aspects.
b. A work of fiction describing a utopia.
2. An impractical, idealistic scheme for social and political reform.

u·to·pi·an·ism also U·to·pi·an·ism (y-tp--nzm)
n.
The ideals or principles of a utopian; idealistic and impractical social theory.

And so, a defense of "Imagine" and utopianism...

First my hero and the song. I'll address the specific criticisms:

Lennon envisions a world where there's "Nothing to kill or die for," where the heights of human achievement aren't worth saving. If there's nothing to die for, then there's nothing to live for. The idea behind "Imagine" is an adolescent world view, one in which there are no conflicts because no one cares enough to have strong emotions.

The idea that John Lennon was in any way about not caring or not being engaged in conflicts of some kind just isn't at all accurate. Lennon is not a symbol of apathy or a refusal to be in conflict with others. If you'd like some evidence of that, I'd recommend the recent documentary "The U.S. Vs. John Lennon." One can be in conflict with others and fight with others and not have to resort to violence.

And I think we're on the path toward that. The idea that we can somehow arrive at a point in which we don't go to war is utopian in nature. That does not mean that it's impossible. One of the best books I read in college was The Pentagon's New Map: War and Peace in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Barnett. I read it in Prof. Dan Reagan's Defense Policy course. The ideas in the book are neither left or right nor something I'd see Lennon embracing.

Care of Wikipedia, here's a pretty accurate summation of Barnett's thesis:

1. Systems of rules called Rule-sets reduce violent conflict. Violence decreases as rules are established (e.g., the WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding) for dealing with international conflicts.
2. The world can be roughly divided into two groups: the Functioning Core, characterized by economic interdependence, and the Non-Integrated Gap, characterized by unstable leadership and absence from international trade. The Core can be sub-divided into Old Core (North America, Western Europe, Japan, Australia) and New Core (China, India). The Disconnected Gap includes the Middle East, South Asia (except India), most of Africa, Southeast Asia, and northwest South America.
3. Integration of the Gap countries into the global economy will provide opportunities for individuals living in the Gap to improve their lives, thereby presenting a desirable alternative to violence and terrorism. The US military is the only force capable of providing the military support to facilitate this integration by serving as the last ditch rule-enforcer. Barnett argues that it has been doing so for over 20 years by "exporting" security (US spends about half of the world's total in military spending).
4. To be successful the US military must stop thinking of war in the context of war but war in the context of "everything else", i.e. demographics, energy, investment, security, politics, trade, immigration, etc.
5. In recognition of its dual role, the US military should organize itself according to two functions, the "Leviathan" and the "System Administrator."
Leviathan's purpose is employ overwhelming force to end violence quickly. It will take out governments, defend Core countries, and generally do the deterrence work that the US military has been doing since the end of WWII. The Leviathan force is primarily staffed by young aggressive personnel and is overwhelmingly American.
The SysAdmin's purpose is to wage peace: peacekeeping, nation building, strengthening weak governments, etc. The SysAdmin force is primarily staffed by older, more experienced personnel, though not entirely (he would put the Marines in SysAdmin as the " Mini-me Leviathan"). The sys Admin force would work best as a Core-wide phenomenon.
6. By exporting security, the US and the rest of the Core benefit from increased trade, increased international investment, and other benefits.

I must admit that generally I'm somewhat socialist and anti-capitalist politically. This is one of the most compelling arguments in favor of capitalism, though. "Hey, if everyone gets wired into the same dependent economy, we can prevent wars since it won't be in anyone's interest to go to war. We'll compete economically!" Yes, more utopianism.

But we need utopianism. We need dreams and we need bold models to pursue. You find utopianism all around us, throughout virtually all systems of beliefs, be they political, religious, or philosophical. The Christian life is utopian. It's hard to find a stronger example of the utopian quest than in the sincere Christian's personal journey toward emulation of Jesus. Utopian attitudes pervade both the left and the right. The environmentalist movement has a utopian vision of a world in which we've managed to live with nature in partnership instead of domination. The anti-abortion movement (I don't use the term "pro-life) is definitely utopian.

I think the point needs to be made that much of what we see in our society right now would be considered utopian through the eyes of people of the past.

Today, the presidential front-runner with the best chance of winning is a black man. Just last week one of the biggest broadcasters in the country lost his job for making nasty comments about black people. Jump back one hundred and fifty years ago and those possibilities are utopian. Getting to the point in which our society is at now required some bold utopian thinkers:

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'"

...

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by thecontent of their character."

...

"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood."

...

"This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day."

...

"Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring—when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children—black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics—will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Does that utopia suck? Or is utopia different when Martin Luther King, Jr. lays it out?

There's also another name to the utopian lifestyle and the utopian disposition. It's called optimism.

op·ti·mism /ˈɒptəˌmɪzəm/[op-tuh-miz-uhm]
–noun
1. a disposition or tendency to look on the more favorable side of events or conditions and to expect the most favorable outcome.
2. the belief that good ultimately predominates over evil in the world.
3. the belief that goodness pervades reality.

Versus:

cyn·i·cism (sĭn'ĭ-sĭz'əm)
n.

1. An attitude of scornful or jaded negativity, especially a general distrust of the integrity or professed motives of others: the public cynicism aroused by governmental scandals.
2. A scornfully or jadedly negative comment or act: "She arrived at a philosophy of her own, all made up of her private notations and cynicisms" (Henry James).

First, there's plenty of evidence that optimists -- those who are somewhat utopian in nature -- live longer. Sorry, but why someone would want to live in a pessimistic, black and gray reality tunnel is just beyond me. To believe that you're likely to fail is half way to failure in and of itself.

The people who have changed the world and made it a better place are those with the big dreams and the grand ambitions. They're the people who think that things can get better if we only apply our energies and creativities. Can we ever reach John And Yoko's "utopia"? A place which has overcome fundamentalism, our human divisions, the temptations of war, the greed of unbridled capitalist pursuit, and the mass starvations of millions? Maybe.

But the importance of utopia is not so much some end result but rather the growth we experience in its pursuit.