Imagine

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

I've never been a big fan of Imagine. The tune is pretty bland, mainly. But I always felt that the lyrics were a bit obvious. For decades people have been praising Lennon for his brilliant insight into Utopia, but many of us just go "well, duh!" But I'm not being fair on Lennon, really, I'm judging the song on credit it's been getting that Lennon didn't necessarily ask for.

So let's be fair to John Lennon. He's summed up the solution to the world's ills pretty well. It's that one line "Nothing to kill or die for" that's crucial. Of course, it only works if we're all doing it, but this is Utopia we're talking about. Getting rid of nationalism and sectarianism, that's going to pretty much remove all the fuel for mankind's tribal urges. I'm not saying they'll go away, but I've commented before that just because we're never going to be perfect doesn't mean the world can't be a lot better.

I would take issues with "no countries". That seems to imply anarchy. I think there should be one country (and obviously a hierarchy of local government), because I don't believe anarchy is workable (if you don't believe me, do a search on 'police strikes'). I suppose what Lennon was really after was "no national identity". That's is very unrealistic - ideal for a utopia I suppose - but at least approachable with a one-world philosophy in which everyone is encouraged to see everyone else a part of their 'tribe'. I think we've made great steps in this direction over the 20th and 21st centuries, with science showing that we are indeed essentially identical as a species with no physically or intellectually superior races, and with television, world travel and communications bringing the whole world to everyone (well, obviously this only applies in the developed world, there's a way to go to convince, say, a Taliban soldier who's never left his bit of the desert in northern Afghanistan, that he shares a bond with every other human being alive).

I'd agree with "no religion" though. The alternative is "one religion", which is, apparently, what that line is changed to when some fundie Americans sing the song. One religion might seem superficially to solve the problem, but in practice it invites either fragmentation or theocracy. Maintaining a single doctrine demands a level of totalitarianism, such as with Catholicism, or Islamic theocracy, that is incompatible with modern demands for civil rights and liberties. Alternatively, if you go with a less authoritarian model like in Protestantism, you just end up with petty in-fighting and, ultimately, separation into separate faiths.

But with no religion, what is there to try to hold together? There's no doctrine to keep consistent with current social customs and scientific understanding, there are no texts to be disputed. There are no requirements to conform to an unrealistic social order. Fears that society would implode morally are not supported by the evidence, with the least religious nations being among the safest and most charitable, and the most religious quite the opposite. Clearly children need moral instruction and if parents don't know how to teach it in anything but religious terms, they need to be shown how, presumably by the government via the schools.

How do we progress towards these goals? Well, if we could just break through the barriers we have to current enlightenment progress, we can just sit back and watch it happen. Globally-aware organisations like the EU, the UN, Amnesty International, the Red Cross and so forth can enhance our feelings of companionship and break down the barriers between nations that encourage our tribal nature (homogenization sounds like an unpleasant word, but I think it's a noble goal - if everyone joins the one-world culture by choice, it isn't people being stripped of their identity, it is their identities growing and expanding). And the advance of Enlightenment cultures should continue to spread through all nations, stripping religion of its power and reducing it to an ever-diminishing caretaking role.

I am optimistic enough, just, to be aware that this is still happening, recent events in the USA being an obvious (but temporary) glitch. Let us continue to both hope and strive for John Lennon's utopian goal. I think it'll happen, just as long as we can get past the current string of crises: religious fanaticism, end-times lunacy, nuclear proliferation, environmental catastrophe, resource depletion and over-population.