When singer/songwriter John Lennon was penning the 1971 song that envisaged a world with no states, but common ownership of the means and instruments for distributing wealth and no religious societal power, can he have imagined the furore that it would generate in some future quarters? If he had been familiar with the Socialist Party he might have included a nod to a moneyless, leaderless society too but given the strong nod within the song to a rational sane society different to the one we have then we might easily surmise that the necessary elements of a socialist society were contained therein.
Reasonable to say that Lennon was an advocate of Make Love, Not War, and Jaw Jaw is better than War War. As youngsters we were aware that it was far better to engage in a ‘verbal’ punch up rather than a physical altercation.
‘Sticks and stones may break my bones but words cannot hurt me’ was the riposte in the school playground when insults or spite were being hurled at one’s person. Slightly provocative perhaps if one’s adversary was still determined to show that sufficient might does overcome right. As we now know, hurty words can result in hurty feelings. Which may result in a van load of the ‘you’ve hurt their feelings thought police’ arriving on your doorstep, or, if you’ve really shaken someone’s beliefs to the core, the arrival of the riot squad or equivalent.
Back in 2006 children at a church-run primary school must have been a little miffed and confused when their headteacher pulled the plug on a particular song they had been rehearsing because some of its lines were, ‘not appropriate words to be sung at the Church of England school for four to eleven-year-olds. Was it ‘Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll’ by Ian Dury?
The local curate fully backed the decision; ‘The song was not suitable for the occasion. It has an appealing sentiment of love but its vision is of a world in which people do not need religion.’ A school governor said, ‘The song expresses longing for a different world and for eternal happiness. But it says you can have this without religion.’
The headteacher said, ‘We have not banned the song. We chose not to perform it at our public concert but to perform another song we had practised which better reflected the theme of Songs for A Green Earth. We are a Church school and we believe God is the foundation of all we do. As such we did not feel that was an appropriate song to perform at a public concert’.
Sophistry! It wasn’t censorship, but it was. What lesson did the pupils of the school draw from the whole happening? God’s a music bigot? A life lived without the constraints that religion implants in it is a much happier one.
‘Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try, No hell below us, above us, only sky.’ ‘No religion too.’
DC
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