Happy Christmas - War is Over!

This blog may not seem immediately relevant to the course, but I actually think it is very relevant.

Colette and I went to see a very powerful film on Friday night, 'The US v John Lennon'. Although I was in a fantastic mood as we headed out to 'The Watershed' cinema I was half-expecting this film to make feel really angry. Being a huge fan of John Lennon and long-convinced that his murder was orchestrated by the FBI, I was a little concerned that my buoyant mood was going to be turned sour by the film I was about to see. I couldn't have been more wrong. The film was absolutely inspiring and a real celebration of the simple message of love and peace that Lennon brought to the world, especially in the latter, post-Beatle years of his life. While the film did nothing to dissaude me of my belief that his murder was a put up job, what I was left with was not anger and bitterness at how this could be allowed to happen, but rather an immense feeling of joy derived from the real sense of authenticity of the life that he led and the message that he gave to the world.

Certainly one could call Lennon a protest singer but there is something about his protest that absolutely marks him out and places him apart from other protesting voices of the day. And that is that he stuck to his simple vision of love and peace despite the gross acts of politcal injustice to which he was subjected both personally and as a member of a supposedly free society. He was accused by many of being naive, idealistic, utopian, and was dismissed by many critics andhis music rejected by former Beatle fans, his association with Yoko, being particiarly scorned upon. Yet his songs of peace and love are the ones that have endured and resonate most strongly in the collective psyche - Imagine, Give Peace a Chance, All You Need Is Love, Happy Christmas, War is Over, etc etc - these are the 'naive' songs that have done more to inspire hope in the peace movements than any other songs on the planet.

There's a point in the film where Tariq Ali points out the absurdity that the US government should feel so threatened by a pop star whose non-militaristic protest is simply to sings songs about love and peace, and to inspire a feeling of love and good will in the world. I thought a lot about this, and while I completely take the spirit of Ali's point, I actually disagree with him. I think Lennon's stand was (and is) actually more threatening to the forces of fear and ignorance that seek to control others through militaristic force than almost any other. In fact, the courage to hold to those ideals and to remain true to them even in the face of ridicule, and against all the odds is probably the only way to ever bring real change to the world. I'm sure he had may failings, but through the power of his music and message, I believe Lennon was a true visionary in the same mould as Gandhi and his songs will continue to be played for generations to come, because they touch the heart of what it is to be human, of what each and every one of us on the planet is actually craving for.

Lennon actually makes the point during the film that art is the key to peace, not combat. This may be what made Lennon's protest so different to that of Jerry Rubens, Abbie Hoffman, Bobby Seal and the like, each ofwhom (though initially motivated by values of peace, love and justice) felt compelled to take up arms in their struggle to change things. By doing so, they were drawn into the hands of the very forces they were seeking to overthrow. Interestingly, Lennon saw the artistic qualities in all three of those men and befriended each of them, but he also seems to have grown wary of their approach and remained true to his vision of peace through artistic means.

The film has inspired me to reassert my belief that artistic expression really is the key to peace in this world and I believe that vision can never be too naive, never too idealistic. Those ideals of love, peace, beauty, joy, harmony remain authentic to our core human experience and however much we are told that we have to live in the 'real world', we must continue to pose the question - real, in whose terms?

So why have I included this here as a blog entry? Well, it made me think of the saboteur! On a global scale, the US government and other destructive, retrogressive political forces in the world could be likened to the saboteur within each and every one of us. John Lennon in this context represents the authentic self remaining true to its values and principles even in the face of the overwhelming 'evidence' that such an apparently gentle, loving, peaceful approach could ever change anything! We are conditioned to take up arms against that we don't like, whether it be an oppressive political regime, a personal foe or our own saboteur-ego. By acting in such a way, however, we just lose the authentic power of interconnectedness, and concede to the power of historical conditioning rooted in division, strife and war. We become a victim of the saboteur rather than its saviour. Lennon, notwithstanding inevitable human weaknesses, was a living example of the peaceful warrior. And as we learn to live the wealthy life, we could do worse than to follow his example. It sounds glib to say it, but surely, if we are to transform, we must love our enemy, make peace with our saboteur, embrace him or her, for s/he is none other than our own shadow and s/he will walk with us always, whether we like it or not!

Happy Christmas. War is Over!

John x