"Imagine"--it's origin as a sugar-coated Communist Manifesto
and how John got sugared himself
Some more familiar with communism may want to add details.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Communist_Manifesto
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism
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
Some humanists think religion causes people to neglect current human
conditions in favoring an existence to come. This ignores the better
religious social efforts and progressive advocacy in strict adherence to
the communist view that religion is "the opiate of the masses" and should
be eliminated.
Imagine calls for people to not have a hope for a possible Heaven beyond the
known things in the name of a plan for a real "heaven on Earth" beyond
what's realistic to expect.
In communism, government will become unnecessary because everyone will
share...after a communist government makes them do it for a while....
Violence between governments will not exist although it's a recipe for
worldwide anarchy so not a cure for violence.
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
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
The communist stance of everyone sharing everything. It might diminish the
motive for higher learning for people to end up with the same whether they
take eight years of college or none.
http://www.rusbasan.com/Politics/John_Lennon_Imagines.html
This view evolved with time.
For John on a communist advocacy of revolution, free the workers/proletariat,
Janov's primal therapy, real pain, etc., and discouragement of bourgeois
capitalism, religion, parent figures, etc., see the site at the next link.
(John Lennon and Yoko Ono talk to Robin Blackburn and Tariq Ali for the left-
wing newspaper Red Mole)
http://marxsite.com/Lennon%20interview.htm
"So that’s my feeling. The idea was don’t aggravate the pig by waving the
thing that aggravates–by waving the Red flag in his face. You know, I really
thought that love would save us all. But now I’m wearing a Chairman Mao badge.
"I’m just beginning to think he’s doing a good job. I would never know until I
went to China. I’m not going to be like that, I was just always interested
enough to sing about him. I just wondered what the kids who were actually
Maoists were doing. I wondered what their motive was and what was really going
on. I thought if they wanted revolution, if they really want to be subtle,
what’s the point of saying “I’m a Maoist and why don’t you shoot me down?” I
thought that wasn’t a very clever way of getting what they wanted.
http://www.jannswenner.com/archives/john_lennon_part2.aspx
"'Imagine that there was no more religion, no more country, no more politics,'
is virtually the Communist manifesto, even though I'm not particularly a Commu-
nist and I do not belong to any movement." He told NME: "There is no real Commu-
nist state in the world; you must realize that. The Socialism I speak about ...
[is] not the way some daft Russian might do it, or the Chinese might do it. That
might suit them. Us, we should have a nice...British Socialism."
Lennon once told Paul McCartney that "Imagine" was "'Working Class Hero' with
sugar on it for conservatives like yourself."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagine_%28song%29
Around then John moved from the UK and high taxes to the US and more rewarding
capitalism.
"the radicalism was phony, really, because it was out of guilt. I’d always
felt guilty that I had made money, so I had to give it away or lose it. I don’t
mean I was a hypocrite, I mean when I believe, I believe right down to the
boots. But (what I was doing) fighting the American government just because
Jerry Rubin couldn’t get what he really wanted--a nice cushy job." (Newsweek,
Sept 29, 1980)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2638486/posts
If it boils down to just support for some welfare programs, encouragement
for charity, and discouraging people from being 'centric and intolerant about
things that aren't character determinants, the call for no heaven/religion is
is an awkward reminder of the concerns the song arose from. It would be better
served by a suggestion to not be 'centric and intolerant about the belief/non-
belief differences in calling on everyone to support welfare, etc. Like John
adjusted, Imagine can be imagined that way to adjust to that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagine_%28song%29