this post was submitted on 30 May 2024
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"Imagine" is the most perfect distillation of liberal philosophical idealism, i.e. the notion that the world's problems are caused by people just having wrong ideas and if everyone could simply 'imagine' a peaceful world it would happen, rather than problems being the inevitable outcomes of current material conditions as determined by the dominant economic system.
This seems a wild take to me. Since when does liberal philosophy promote the idea that people should all think about current material conditions and imagine having no private ownership or nationstates? Whatever about the guy, but I genuinely think the song has a very good message that very few people have seriously thought about.
I suppose I should say "radlib", but as this post shows he's clearly against an actual organized revolution.
Pointing out the problems of the system is still well within the bounds of the leftward edge of liberalism, as long as the solution given shepherds people back into the fold of nonresistance. Electoralists who insist that Bernie or AOC or whoever could fix the problems of the US, if only they could get some kind of New Deal through that danged Congress, are playing the same game. As are environmentalists who cry about climate change but but don't connect it to the fundamental mechanics of capitalism and never go beyond individual acts of defiance. And they don't even have to be doing it cynically, they just have to be unable or unwilling to see beyond the limits of their current understanding, as imposed on them by the material conditions of their life. Such as, the life of a millionaire rockstar.
Charitably, one could go so far as to call him a utopian socialist, but that still doesn't mean anything if he doesn't investigate any further into the real conditions of the world. All he can do is idly daydream and "imagine" a better world without suggesting any kind of next step or concrete plan to create a better world - indeed, the people who are actually trying to do something are the subject of ridicule. And more than that, someone can listen to Imagine, daydream about a better world, be satisfied with how good they are for wishing the world was a better place, and then go straight back out into capitalist society with an untroubled conscience. Like, Imagine came out 53 year ago, the official youtube upload from 2016 alone has 306 million views - how many of those people did it set off on the path of communist revolution?
I don't want this to feel like I'm bashing you for liking the song, if it's meaningful to you then cool, it has a good sound and the lyrics do conjure an objectively good world, plus by being here you're already reached a far more radical level than the vast majority of westerners. But it actually has no content beyond what can be recuperated into the system that created it, especially in the context of the rest of his work and his cultivated hippie persona.