Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Imagine John Lennon Always at Peace?

Ta-Wan


I just had a bit of a YouTube indulgence watching various things about John Lennon and related stuff. I realized I'd been quite influenced by his words during my life, perhaps a little by hearing him talk, but more by my Dad being a huge fan and my hearing his lyrics daily all my life. Many of the things I say, he used to say, but, of course, he said some rubbish and I write nearly 98% rubbish, so we differ a little.

I just got to thinking about his 'Give Peace a Chance' idea and how he, as an Idealist sort of philosopher, said [roughly] "Hey, you're all pushing for peace or some other goal in the future and it's not working, why don't we just have peace now?"

Of course this is brilliant and I thought, 'you know, I agree 100%, I'm going to get active and do some art and street protests, humorously hopefully...' and then I stopped in my tracks.

I realized the obvious. I just looked at myself, and at him, and at the world - we are not entirely peaceful beings. If I am occasionally terse, irritable, or so on, but accept that as the way things are, then I can't really ask any more of the world than I do of myself. At any one time with our vast population, someone at some time, nay someone all of the time, will be quite grumpy - we may say billions at a time.

I'm not a murder or a rapist, nor do I fight or carry weapons. I am a pacifist vegetarian, peace loving hippy; a monk by comparison to those who wager war or brawl in the street. Yet people like that, of course, exist, so at any one time terrible stuff can be going on. Now I offer my philosophies on life about how 'life is this and that and we need not fight or have trouble' but how many people do you know who outright share your own personal philosophies? Zero - if we count word for word agreement. People like things just their way, friends may be similar, but not identical. So, as I Idealize over a world of peace and occasional grumps (just for the necessary contrast), then I cannot be too surprised that someone wishes for a world where they can do exactly as they please, even if that be murder.

Of course, the slogan comes off as a little less catchy now:

"Give peace a chance, and give murder a chance too, if you're so inclined"

You can check out Ta-Wan's other musings here.

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