How dangerous was John Lennon to the Status Quo?

I'm talking about the Military Industrial Complex(MIC), the REAL power in America. Has been for over 60 years. Let's listen to Revolution, it's a good song:



Now, let's look at the words:

You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right

Good idea but sometimes destruction finds you.

You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We're doing what we can
But when you want money
for people with minds that hate
All I can tell is brother you have to wait
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right
Ah

A solution without hate? Doesn't seem to fit into that cubby hole that the MIC has put up for us. Korea. Viet Nam, Afghanistan, Iraq and now damn near anything Muslim.

You say you'll change the constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it's the institution
Well, you know
You better free you mind instead
But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao
You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow
Don't you know it's gonna be all right

Hmm, change the Constitution? That's been done over the last 10 years. Change your mind? That's been happening too but not in the way John meant.

John's 30 years gone. His words live on. I wonder what the world would be like if he lived through Reagan. The Bush's and Clinton. He would have left even more of a stamp.

Replay the song. Listen to the words this time as you're singing them. They are important.

he was dangerous enough to send a cia lone gunman to assassinate him.

I don't think he was dangerous at all.
He was just a talented commie singer who sadly got murdered.
no conspiricy,
imo anyway.



[edit on 25-8-2010 by AmericanDaughter]

reply to post by AmericanDaughter


A "commie singer"? One that knew what the Constitution means even though it was just his adopted country?

reply to post by intrepid


No joke when I opened this I was thinking you meant how dangerous was John Lennon to Status Quo, not the status quo. I was disappointed in you!

In all seriousness though i really don’t think he was a threat, he just had some good tunes if you looked hard enough you could probably draw the same conclusion about most artists.

reply to post by kevinunknown


Good tunes? That's subjective. I'm not really a fan of his music but his IDEAS are extremely important.

Edit to add: Ideas and ideals are stronger than rifles and bombs.



[edit on 25-8-2010 by intrepid]

By 1980, was he really dangerous? I don't know. His much more radical ideas were by then far behind him and very public. His work on Double Fantasy, which he was just finishing up at the time of his death, wasn't terribly political. In fact, I think most of it was just love songs to Yoko (been a while since I listened to it - I had it on vinyl years ago, but no longer own a record player).

The only thing I could see as a possibility is that since Lennon had not been active for many years, was very much out of the public eye, but was just about to release a new album, maybe there was some fear that in coming back he'd be a political head ache for them. But if they killed him for that, then they really didn't do much digging on what he was recording and about to put out on Double Fantasy, because it was pretty innocuous stuff in that regard, so far as I can remember. If anything, killing him only had the opposite effect - songs like 'Imagine' (very radical!), were played on near infinite repeat for the next year, and his death just made a martyr of him, bringing back in the biggest possible way all the ideas he had been talking about in those years prior to him becoming more private.

Lennon was not a communist. He freely admitted that he and the rest of the band got into music in order to get rich and meet girls. That's why most every rock band does what they do (with a few exceptions, like Rage Against the Machine, who really are communists). He was a business man in addition to being an artist, as were/are the other three Beatles. There is no contradiction in making money and in wanting to give back to your fellow man or promote ideas of sharing.

[edit on 8/25/2010 by LifeInDeath]

reply to post by LifeInDeath


Well he can be forgiven for Yoko. Let's face it, she had beautiful boobs.

I just wonder what his tunes would have been about with the South and Central America drugs wars. Reagan years. The ethnic wars in what was Yugoslavia. The new wars against the Muslims.

These are my thoughts.

reply to post by intrepid



I believe Lennon was a communist and athiest at heart.
It was all over his music.
When I say commie I mean it in the true sence of communisum which is impossible due to peeps like obama etc. but still if it Could be carried out could be a good thing.
I still don't think he was assinated but could be wrong.



[edit on 25-8-2010 by AmericanDaughter]

Originally posted by intrepid
reply to post by LifeInDeath

 

Well he can be forgiven for Yoko. Let's face it, she had beautiful boobs.

I choked on my coffee when I read this lol. Anywho, yes, I wonder what his music would have been like. Especially with things like they are now. He may have gotten more political when he saw how things were going.

I've never watched it, but this trailer for this film seems to give a good indication of Lennon and how much the U.S saw him as a threat.

Originally posted by kevinunknown
reply to post by intrepid

 

No joke when I opened this I was thinking you meant how dangerous was John Lennon to Status Quo, not the status quo. I was disappointed in you!

In all seriousness though i really don’t think he was a threat, he just had some good tunes if you looked hard enough you could probably draw the same conclusion about most artists.

Me to !

Woody

How dangerous was Lennon?

Depends who you ask. He was a peace activist and he was a very visible person. J Edgar Hoover had a huge file on him.
He was the kind of person the youth of America listened to, so yeah, that is dangerous to his health.


A very good movie on the topic is available from Netflix, I highly recommend viewing it:
The U.S. vs. John Lennon

reply to post by intrepid


Very nice thread. His views like

"All we are saying is give peace a chance"

"All you need is love."

"I don't believe in killing whatever the reason! "

"If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace."

"If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliche that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that's his problem. Love and peace are eternal."

"Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one. "

"It doesn't matter how long my hair is or what colour my skin is or whether I'm a woman or a man."

with his message



I agree with you he would be a major threat to powers.

i'm so sick of hearing about how great people think communism is. tell me one instance of a communist state actually living up to what communism is supposed to be. tell me one place in the world where all of the people are equal and happy and well fed. every single communist country that exists or has ever existed committed mass murders and heavy censorship and crimes against their citizens. the common man in each of these countries had unimaginably horrible lives, terrible living conditions, and many even died of starvation in a lot of communist countries. if you like communism so much why don't you move to cuba, china, north korea, laos or vietnam and then write us back telling us how happy you are in your new country with your new commie buddies. best of luck.

Anyone who doesn't think Lennon was a problem for the MIC fails to understand how powerful music is as a motivator.

These same folks probably don't know why they listen to their favorite tunes before taking the stage or field of battle either.

As a species, we may have had a form of music before we even had fire. Think about all that hard wiring that went on generation after generation making music today one of our primary forms of individual entertainment.

Want to remember something difficult or lengthy, give it melody, make it a song, it'll stick in your mind better. What does that tell you...

Why do you suspect current top 40 contains songs include the repeated words bulletproof, battlefield, drug and on and on and on... Because the MIC wants you thinking about, and subsequently creating a world that includes these things.

Bob Marley had to go too, along with Jimi and Janice. Why? Because they wrote music that brought us together. When the standard operating procedure calls for separating the sheeple at every turn you can see how something as spiritually powerful as music cannot be allowed to get to the people.

Why do you think the man who wrote Peace Train is on the no fly list? Cat Stevens would fill stadiums with love that's why.

I'd like to think all people on this site were somewhat awake but I guess not...


And to all of the idiots who think communism = bad, remember this. It's not the system that was bad it was the implementation that sucked. Russia should not, nor should China be viewed as the pillars of communism. You can however look at the entire continent of North America before 1492.

The difference between the two is scarcity based communism VS abundance based communism. We live in an abundant world, we could easily pull of an abundance based communistic society without issue even given today's population. If you don't believe it, it's only because your mind cannot handle the challenge of making it happen.

You wouldn't even have to give up your tech toys. You'd just have to give up being a dick to everyone else in the family.

reply to post by intrepid

"How dangerous was John Lennon to the Status Quo?"

At one time, I would have quickly subscribed to the theory that Lennon was a danger to the 'establishment' as it was referred to then. You can mix and match the name tags... Military/Industrial complex, etc. And perhaps had he survived to this day and the internet, he would have indeed been that threat.

But in his own time? No. Raytheon, Lockheed, the army and navy were not threatened by his presence.

Now, I am not taking anything away from him or his efforts to spread peace and love. he was a powerful force in his day; especially to the youth movements, forwarding ideas that existence was not dependent on the western civilization construct.

But in all, I don't believe he was targeted by the government... this one in the US or any other. I think he simply became an icon for adoration and hatred.

Whether he wanted to be a leader or not, it was something that was inevitable. He was a free thinker, he spoke his mind, he was innovative, and he had a huge, huge following. He possessed every possible trait that would be considered a threat. Plus, he had one thing that many like him don't have...money.

He was a problem.

reply to post by intrepid


Not dangerous in the least. For the last 20 years of his life, Lennon was a second rate musician living off the currency gained during his glory days and holding to (or trying to hold) onto the hippie nonsense of the 60's.

The only thing he was a threat to at the time of his unfortunate death was good music

Originally posted by DontTreadOnMe
He was the kind of person the youth of America listened to, so yeah, that is dangerous to his health.

An important point that might be made, by the time Lennon died, the people listening to him were not so much the "youth," anymore but instead were in their 30's and early 40's and by then were coming into positions of power both within business and in government.

Something to think about.