A friend sent me a link to Oleg Atbashian’s essay “The Gospel of John & Yoko: The Origins of Mad Morality“. I either don’t understand Atbashian’s position, or disagree with much of it.
I don’t believe that opposing the war, or opposing the so-called Patriot Act, means that I support terrorism, or that I don’t want the government to fight terrorism.
I do want the government to fight terrorism, but only in ways that are consistent with US law and the US Constitution. I don’t want the government to tap our phones without warrants, or fight wars on false pretenses, and I don’t believe that the government needs to do either to fight terrorism. In fact, I believe that both are actually counterproductive to fighting terrorism.
To the extent that I think that John’s lyrics are worth consideration at all, I don’t find “no religion too” to be an “inanity”. Certainly it’s a condition that will likely never occur, but the point of imagining it isn’t that we can bring it about, but rather that we can strive to bring about the expected consequence of no religion, which is no warfare over religion. Surely that’s at least worth thinking about, even if it isn’t actually possible to keep fundamentalists from spreading their brands of hate and discord.
On the other hand, I’ll agre with Oleg that”imagine no posessions” doesn’t seem worthwhile at all. Materialism causes problems, too be sure, but there is no shortage of evidence that communism creates far worse problems.
The Gospel of John & Yoko: The Origins of Mad Morality
A friend sent me a link to Oleg Atbashian’s essay “The Gospel of John & Yoko: The Origins of Mad Morality“. I either don’t understand Atbashian’s position, or disagree with much of it.
I don’t believe that opposing the war, or opposing the so-called Patriot Act, means that I support terrorism, or that I don’t want the government to fight terrorism.
I do want the government to fight terrorism, but only in ways that are consistent with US law and the US Constitution. I don’t want the government to tap our phones without warrants, or fight wars on false pretenses, and I don’t believe that the government needs to do either to fight terrorism. In fact, I believe that both are actually counterproductive to fighting terrorism.
To the extent that I think that John’s lyrics are worth consideration at all, I don’t find “no religion too” to be an “inanity”. Certainly it’s a condition that will likely never occur, but the point of imagining it isn’t that we can bring it about, but rather that we can strive to bring about the expected consequence of no religion, which is no warfare over religion. Surely that’s at least worth thinking about, even if it isn’t actually possible to keep fundamentalists from spreading their brands of hate and discord.
On the other hand, I’ll agre with Oleg that”imagine no posessions” doesn’t seem worthwhile at all. Materialism causes problems, too be sure, but there is no shortage of evidence that communism creates far worse problems.