I have always admired John Lennon—the man and the music. The Beatle's sound was the soundtrack of my early years in Manchester in the 1960s. My older sister had a black and white poster of the group on her bedroom door—"We're a group not a band," said Lennon. His stand on issues of peace and against war was courageous. His death a tragedy depriving the world of immense talent.
Like most people of a certain age I instantly recognize the opening piano chords of his most well known solo effort "Imagine." I've sung along at parties, weddings and get togethers as collectively we sway to the lilting music and imagine a better world; with a vague unease that Lennon was somehow martyred for his dream.
Wouldn't Lennon's dream be nice? At this point I stick my pin the bubble of nostalgia and say, "No, I don't think it would be nice." Oh dear, I suppose that makes me a Lennon heretic! Here's my reason: I think Lennon had fallen for the oft-temptation of assuming the one is always better than the many; that monism trumps pluralism. And I'm a bit of a fan of pluralism.
The sentiment of "Imagine" is shared by many. Imagine: no heaven or hell, no countries, nothing to kill or die for, and no religion; just living for today and living in peace. Given some of the absurdities of religions and nation states—and Lennon has it right that human beings go to war for their deeply held religious vision of truth or else for their national interests, "my country right or wrong." Who would disagree? His vision is a worthy one.
My problem comes with the chorus: "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." The world will be better if you "join us." Forget your particularities and agree with me and everything will be fine. It is the temptation of the one over the many. One vision of truth, one set of values, one religious or secular goal. Dictators and religious leaders of all stripes have given into the temptation. It brooks no dissent and suppresses those that differ.
It leaves no space for variety, and as they say, variety is the spice of life. The truth of nature is infinite variety. The human reality is pluralistic. No one religion, nation, political party has all the truth. Humanity has grown through what Hegel observed as dialectic "thesis, antithesis, synthesis." We grow and change by encountering that which is different—its antithesis to our thesis. It produces a new synthesis, which becomes a new thesis, and so on. Difference enriches. Encountering difference causes growth and change.
Lennon wants us to abandon religion. According to The Guardian*, 84 percent of the world population identifies as religious. That's over seven billion people. And though it is easy to divide the world into Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist as the major religions, each of those has infinite variety. Religion at its best is very good with compassion and service. Religion at its worse is very bad with divisiveness and hatred. But imagine a world without it? To what end? For good or ill, pluralism is the reality of human existence and, love or hate it, religion is a part of the picture.
With John Lennon I will continue to imagine a world without war and hatred, but I don't think we will get their by making everyone the same. Rather affirm the good, celebrate difference and work with goodness and compassion wherever we find it. In my imagining I will rejoice in diversity, embrace the good in all, and learn from the challenge of difference.
Enjoy the day,
+Ab. Andy
*"Religion: Why Faith is becoming More and More Popular," The Guardian, April 27, 2018.