Imagine there’s no Heaven
It’s easy if you try
No Hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people livin’ for today
As an atheist (more or less—labels suck), I don’t have to imagine. To me, Heaven and Hell are concepts crafted by small groups of educated elites to maintain control over the masses. Whether you agree or not, you have to admit that those who designed these systems created an extraordinarily effective tool for compliance. I doubt even the originators of the Abrahamic religions imagined their influence would endure for this long.
“Living for today,” John sang. I often think about how the Republican party—largely from the Reagan era onward—convinced American Christians that they were on the same side. The result? A wanton destruction of natural resources in exchange for cash, none of which ever reached the millions of people who were told “trickle-down economics” was a viable theory rather than just the rich pissing on everyone else.
If you believe Jesus is going to swoop down and save the world, or that a divine hand is in total control, you might not feel the urgency to protect the environment. To the believer, “just because you don’t believe in Christianity doesn’t make it not real.” I counter with: “just because you don’t believe in climate change doesn’t mean it isn’t real.” The difference is that there is a mountain of horrifying evidence supporting the latter.
Imagine if billions of humans weren’t expecting a deus ex machina to fix our mess. How differently might we behave?
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothin’ to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people livin’ life in peace
I think about this one a lot, and I’ll admit, it’s a complex issue. Imagine if the world spent nothing on “national defense” and instead diverted every cent of that funding into scientific research. We would have likely cured cancer decades ago. We might have colonies on Mars. We could live in a world where hunger is a footnote for historians and “work” is something we choose to do for the benefit of humanity, not something we are forced to do to survive while enriching billionaires.
On the other hand, I get it. As long as we perceive the world as “us versus them,” we feel the need to ensure “us” can defend against attack. I’m not a pacifist; I have no problem defending myself, my family, or anyone attacked unprovoked. I just wish we could find more common ground and fewer reasons to believe that other people aren’t “us.”
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharin’ all the world
Oh shit y’all, now he sounds like a socialist. That won’t work at all because socialists are communists and dictators and the enemies of freedom… right?!
I believe socialism is one of the most misunderstood terms of the last century—the result of a deliberate smear campaign propagated by those who benefit from unregulated capitalism (which is probably not you, and definitely not me). First off, socialism is an economic system, not a political one; that is why one can be a democratic socialist. In a socialist system, the means of production belong to the producers—the workers. You and me. Jeff Bezos didn’t make Amazon successful; millions of underpaid, under-insured, and under-appreciated workers did. And Musk? Please… don’t even get me started.
There are two things that terrify the “1%,” the oligarchy in charge. First, they fear we’ll realize that for hundreds of thousands of years, humans were effectively socialists—and it worked. Even before agriculture, when we were facing giant short-faced bears and sabre-toothed cats, people with no knowledge of germs, we survived because we stuck together and shared our resources. It wasn’t about owning more shit than the next guy; it was about ensuring the tribe thrived. Status wasn’t measured by toys, but by how much you contributed to the group.
The second thing they fear? That their methods of dividing us will stop working. They fear we—the vast majority—will unite to create a world where no one sits atop billions while others struggle to feed their children.
You may say I’m a dreamer
Hey, I’ve been called worse.
Something I’ve noticed lately is how polite people are when I’m out and about. I live in Tennessee, a red state, where people seem to think that anti-American idiots like Marsha Blackburn are worthy of their votes. But in the grocery store, folks are genuinely nice. They say “I’m sorry” if our shopping carts collide, and I always tell them, “you’re fine!” People wish me a good day, and I wish them the same. It’s not just a pleasantry; they seem like good people, and I want good things for good people.
So if I—not a Democrat or a liberal, but a progressive—can get along so well with these “reds,” what the fuck happened to make our nation so divided?
The answer is, as my grandma would have said, as plain as the nose on your face… provided you’re willing to take a hard, honest look (and for fuck’s sake, turn off Fox News).
The only way 1% of the population can control the other 99% is by keeping us focused on anything other than them. A skilled illusionist uses misdirection and sleight of hand to make us believe things that aren’t true. That is exactly what is happening here. We are told all our problems are caused by Republicans, or Democrats, or liberals, or immigrants… anyone but the people who have exploited “we the people” for decades while hoarding the wealth that could make all our lives better.
But I’m not the only one
I hope some day you’ll join us
And the world will live as one
Those in power will always act to serve their own interests. Scaring us with made-up threats that only they can “defend” us against is a standard part of the playbook, as is dividing us against one another so we look the other way while they rob us blind.
No, I’m not the only one. Neither was John. Nor are you.
