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Re: In Lennon's Defense

On Mon, 12 Aug 2002, Bruce Lachey wrote:

> > I don't find John Lennon solo all that interesting, I'm afraid --
> > occasionally he'll come up with an interesting lyric like "How can I
> > move forward when I don't know which way I'm facing", but I really
> > don't care for the sort of nihilistic bliss he fantasizes about in
> > this one.
>
> huh.  my crummy dictionary told me this:
>
> nihilism:
> 1. A doctrine that all values are baseless and that nothing is knowable
> or can be communicated.
> 2. Rejection of all distinctions in moral value, constituting a
> willingness to refute all previous theories of morality.
> 3. The belief that destruction of existing political or social
> institutions is necessary for future improvement.
> 4. The doctrine of a 19th-century Russian movement that advocated
> assassination and terrorism.
>
> Welp, I guess #3 is pretty dead on towards the spirit of the song.  It
> seems I've met a lot of people in this life, and most seem to advocate
> peace..

So you think these "existing political or social institutions" can be
destroyed peacefully?

> I hope that if there is a God, He'll send to Hell anyone that fought in
> His name.  Fighting with someone over religious beliefs is dumber than
> fighting with my toddler nephew over a lukewarm pop tart that I barely
> enjoy.

So if, say, you were living in a country governed by shariah law and you
were not a Muslim, you would not defend yourself when the government tried
to punish you according to the law of the land?  You would gladly allow
their worldview to trump whatever beliefs you happened to have?

If you have any beliefs *about* religion, then you have religious beliefs.  
And it is simply a practical reality that, where there are more than one
set of beliefs, there will inevitably be conflict of *some* sort.  
Lennon's solution to religious conflict was to ostensibly obliterate
religion altogether, but he did not recognize that he was setting up an
alternative form of religion, albeit a very naive form of it.

Nor, for that matter, did he recognize any of the positive aspects of
religion -- he was too preoccupied with eradicating it altogether.  And
thus, his religious worldview comes into conflict with others.

--- Peter T. Chattaway --------------------------- peter at chattaway_com ---
 If true love never did exist how could we know its name? -- Sam Phillips
          Happiness happens but I want joy. -- Marjorie Cardwell

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