Was John Lennon mocking his fanbase with “Imagine”?
While reading National Review Online, I came across the comment of an Iowa-based reader who left their opinion of the first time they heard Lennon’s legendary anthem: “When ‘Imagine’ was new, and I was young, I, of course, took it literally as the way the world should work. Since at least partially growing up (being 57 now), I have come to understand John Lennon as one sarcastic SOB who delighted in demonstrations of his superiority over lesser beings. I am thinking that ‘Imagine’ was meant as a send-up of liberal utopia, an insult hidden in the open.” Another reader who grew up in Soviet Czechoslovakia added this comment: “That John Lennon song always bothered me. It reminded me of the spoiled children of the ‘West.’ They had everything they could possibly want, and they were free. Yet they complained. And, worse, they promoted ideas and regimes that were senselessly destroying other people’s lives.” It makes one wonder if John Lennon was taking the piss against the liberals of his da
