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Posted by
TheBigDog 
I hate communism. It is the gravest danger to mankind. It suppresses that which makes mankind achieve greatness - the human desire for personal achievement. Communism preaches that the self is meaningless and that the collective society is everything. And that everything should be done for society first, and for yourself second. But altruism is not its own reward, and you cannot suppress people's need to being unique, or self expression, or being valued. Those are all the things that communism does.
The song "Imagine" is the very heart of my problem with John Lennon. It is a beautiful song, and paints a utopia that people like to hold up as ideal. It is insidiously evil because people do not think about what the ramifications of such a society, and in turn they are poisoning the efforts toward real improvement when they hold as ideal such a white elephant society and let it influence how they drive our current world.
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...
The first four lines are just trying to get people to put religion out of their heads. A central tenet of communism, and I will be getting back to this point. Imagine all the people living for today. What would the ramifications of this action really be? If nobody gave a thought to tomorrow. Think you have a population problem now? Let go of foresight and impulse control and see where it leads. Nice thought from a distance, but a failure in practice. How about feeding people, and getting from point A to point B. Or all of the invisible services that we take for granted. Or the miracles of medicine that prevent suffering and allow the sick to be well and thrive. All the result of living in the moment? Impossible.
Imagine there’s no countries,
It isn’t hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...
Now we have the removal of cultural identity. The removal of pride for being part of a place that is unique to other places. Of society being comprised of smaller societies with borders and laws so that people of differing philosophies can have a place to be among kin, and travel to enjoy the cultures of others. Nothing to kill or die for. There are things to kill or die for in this world. The pacifist people of this earth live at the mercy of the hawks. Human nature will always generate people who do not want to play by the rules, especially when there is no consequence to breaking said rules. Tibet will be free any day now, right? No religion too. This goes back to taking away from people the right to freedom of belief. I am free to do anything, except to believe in religion. That sounds like freedom to me! It is not the role of government to tell you what you can believe in, or to tell you that you can only believe in government approved mythology. The right to believe in the impossible is the very heart of freedom (even believing in communism). Imagine all the people living life in Peace. The only lines of the song that I don't have a problem with and the only ones I choose to imagine.
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...
Imagine no possessions? Lets play this one out to the end. Where do I live? What do I eat? How do I travel? What do I do? This goes back to the communism, and making everyone a ward of the state. You don't need to possess anything, because anything you need is given to you freely. Oh, but you have to do your part in making things available to everyone else. And you cannot want what you do not need. So Just accept what you get. After all, it is the society that is important, not you. I cannot Imagine no possessions, except in a picture of society thrown back to the stone age and man being reduced to scavenging and hiding from predators. No need for greed or hunger? Exactly where is all the food coming from if nobody is living except for today? Oh, and all the people sharing all the world. But only if you don't want what you don't need. Only if nobody desires anything except for the brotherhood of man above all else, especially personal human comforts or ambitions. Again, the very height of freedom.
You may say I’m a dreamer,
But I’m not the only one,
I hope some day you’ll join us,
And the world will live as one.
Yes, John, you are a dreamer. And you are not alone. However, I will never join you, I will instead spend my life insuring that dreamers like you have a comfortable place to preach nonsense from while you spit at me for keeping you down. The world is not one. It is 6.5 billion. Wishing cannot and will not change that. The utopia described in this song would remove every hope of every individual from ever being realized. The suffering and madness that would be required are unconscionable. The power void that would remain and the central controlled supply network would make slaves of everyone in the name of freedom. This is not an ideal society. It is poison. It should be recognized as such. And it should be discouraged.
Bill
I wrote this several years ago, and I am just reprinting it here. I am a fan of the Beatles and of John Lennon. His death was a tragedy, a loss to the artistic community. He would have been 70 this week, but that does not make what he believed in ideal ways to lead our lives. He was a revolutionary and the meaning of his life's work should be seen for what it really was.
The song "Imagine" is the very heart of my problem with John Lennon. It is a beautiful song, and paints a utopia that people like to hold up as ideal. It is insidiously evil because people do not think about what the ramifications of such a society, and in turn they are poisoning the efforts toward real improvement when they hold as ideal such a white elephant society and let it influence how they drive our current world.
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...
The first four lines are just trying to get people to put religion out of their heads. A central tenet of communism, and I will be getting back to this point. Imagine all the people living for today. What would the ramifications of this action really be? If nobody gave a thought to tomorrow. Think you have a population problem now? Let go of foresight and impulse control and see where it leads. Nice thought from a distance, but a failure in practice. How about feeding people, and getting from point A to point B. Or all of the invisible services that we take for granted. Or the miracles of medicine that prevent suffering and allow the sick to be well and thrive. All the result of living in the moment? Impossible.
Imagine there’s no countries,
It isn’t hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...
Now we have the removal of cultural identity. The removal of pride for being part of a place that is unique to other places. Of society being comprised of smaller societies with borders and laws so that people of differing philosophies can have a place to be among kin, and travel to enjoy the cultures of others. Nothing to kill or die for. There are things to kill or die for in this world. The pacifist people of this earth live at the mercy of the hawks. Human nature will always generate people who do not want to play by the rules, especially when there is no consequence to breaking said rules. Tibet will be free any day now, right? No religion too. This goes back to taking away from people the right to freedom of belief. I am free to do anything, except to believe in religion. That sounds like freedom to me! It is not the role of government to tell you what you can believe in, or to tell you that you can only believe in government approved mythology. The right to believe in the impossible is the very heart of freedom (even believing in communism). Imagine all the people living life in Peace. The only lines of the song that I don't have a problem with and the only ones I choose to imagine.
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...
Imagine no possessions? Lets play this one out to the end. Where do I live? What do I eat? How do I travel? What do I do? This goes back to the communism, and making everyone a ward of the state. You don't need to possess anything, because anything you need is given to you freely. Oh, but you have to do your part in making things available to everyone else. And you cannot want what you do not need. So Just accept what you get. After all, it is the society that is important, not you. I cannot Imagine no possessions, except in a picture of society thrown back to the stone age and man being reduced to scavenging and hiding from predators. No need for greed or hunger? Exactly where is all the food coming from if nobody is living except for today? Oh, and all the people sharing all the world. But only if you don't want what you don't need. Only if nobody desires anything except for the brotherhood of man above all else, especially personal human comforts or ambitions. Again, the very height of freedom.
You may say I’m a dreamer,
But I’m not the only one,
I hope some day you’ll join us,
And the world will live as one.
Yes, John, you are a dreamer. And you are not alone. However, I will never join you, I will instead spend my life insuring that dreamers like you have a comfortable place to preach nonsense from while you spit at me for keeping you down. The world is not one. It is 6.5 billion. Wishing cannot and will not change that. The utopia described in this song would remove every hope of every individual from ever being realized. The suffering and madness that would be required are unconscionable. The power void that would remain and the central controlled supply network would make slaves of everyone in the name of freedom. This is not an ideal society. It is poison. It should be recognized as such. And it should be discouraged.
Bill
I wrote this several years ago, and I am just reprinting it here. I am a fan of the Beatles and of John Lennon. His death was a tragedy, a loss to the artistic community. He would have been 70 this week, but that does not make what he believed in ideal ways to lead our lives. He was a revolutionary and the meaning of his life's work should be seen for what it really was.
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Your post reads like something from Sarah Palin.
The main motivation behind the development of communism (note that I believe pure communism is as extremist as pure capitalism) is throwing off unfair taxation by the rich (a lot like the motivation for the formation of the USA). When a worker produces profit and the profit is diverted to an owner or executive's personal interests rather than the worker's personal interests, the worker's share of the profit has been unfairly taxed by the owner or executive. Not calling it a tax doesn't mean it isn't a tax. It is.
When a government official uses taxes for their personal interests, they are indicted. So when a CEO or owner uses the profits workers generate in an unfair manner (buying a second home, etc. instead of reinvestment in the company and the pursuit of the worker's self interest) they should be indicted as well, as they are doing the very same thing that the government official has done.
It's simple. If everything is reinvested in the infrastructure except a small share that each consumes, that small share will grow quickly. However, if people are focused upon taking a larger share than others, and fighting against one another to gain a greater share, much less will be invested in the infrastructure and we will have a situation like we do now: economic shambles, huge income gaps, slower growth of the real share per person.
If the unfair personal expenditure of taxes collected from workers is stopped and the taxes instead are fully applied to the infrastructure (as they should be), the share growth of everyone will increase dramatically. Of course, those who have been stealing (even inadvertently) more than their deserved share will see their overall income drop. It could take some time before the average share size is the equal to the share size of the great parasites of today, but humanity (including the parasites) will be far better off.
Getting a parasite to "diet" (not consume an immorally large portion) is like getting a crackhead to cut back on crack. They will lie, cheat, steal, threaten, and generally be pieces of crap in order to keep (or gain more) ill gotten goods. The parasite (or crackhead) is the pariah of capitalism: someone who is willing to do anything to anyone or anything in order to get what they want.
A business contracts its workers who provide time and talent in exchange for a wage. Value for value. The business owner pays what they need to in order to attract talent to make them competitive in the market place. The rest of their money is their's to do with as they please. They can spend it, or they can reinvest it. It all depends on how well they are running their business. If a worker does not like the wages they can seek another job or provide more value to receive more wage in return. Calling the practice of a business owner keeping the profits from the operation of their business the equivalent of a "tax" shows a compelling lack of understanding about the function of the market place and business practices. But don't fret over that, you are in good intellectual company.
When I wrote this Sarah was not the Governor of Alaska yet. I prefer to think that she might sound like me.
Bill
Which as a Christian I of course believe in. However, being Christian and living for long term goals like environmental sustainability, and enjoying this current creation, are of course compatible, God honouring activities. So I don't know why John Lennon was so over it. Unless, of course, his lines about owning nothing really do indicate he was praising some kind of communism. In that case, of COURSE he was concerned about Christianity. "Religion is the opiate of the masses" and all that bunk.
As if religion hasn't been a POWERFUL motivator for social justice and workplace reforms, such as William Wilberforce abolishing slavery. It is as if Christians did not introduce nearly every worthwhile thing in society, such as education, universities, old aged pensions, agitating for health care reforms, and everything else that goes with compassion.
Gosh, Australian Christians even introduced a sober, private ballot, as prior to the private ballot there was too much drunken partying and open displays of who one was voting for, with the peer-pressure to vote a certain way that creates!
Which are the biggest NGO welfare agencies? Are they atheist groups? Or church aid organisations of a dozen different welfare varieties?
Yeah, imagine there's no heaven... society will just be fine and dandy without every great Christian reform in history! (Sarcasm). We'd still have kids stuck in the factories and working as chimney sweeps.