Imagine there’s no Imagine
Lennon’s anthem has become a lullaby for the privileged, Chris Richards writes.
A few days after defending a police officer’s decision to punch the gas on his SUV, bulldozing it directly into a crowd of peaceful protesters, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio had a comforting melody stuck in his head.
“I’m reminded of the song Imagine by John Lennon,” de Blasio said this week, according to journalist Jack Mirkinson. “I think everyone who hears that song in its fullness thinks about, ‘What about a world where people got along differently? What about a world where we didn’t live with a lot of the restrictions that we live with now?’ But we’re not there yet ... The peaceful protest is the essence of how we make progress, the reforms made within the NYPD are progress, deep progress. But for folks who say, ‘Defund the police,’ I would say that this is not the way forward.”
Like so many politicians, de Blasio is a horrible listener. In its fullness, Imagine calls for the end of property, the end of borders between countries, the end of organized religion, the end of capitalism. And while the mayor might be a dreamer, he’s not the only one. People love to mishear Imagine as a ditty about how our righteous beliefs excuse us from taking necessary action. The song has become a lullaby for the privileged: To achieve a more just and peaceful tomorrow, change doesn’t actually have to be worked for, or fought for, or even made — just envisioned.
These song-jacking tactics go back years and years. Ronald Reagan famously tried to use Bruce Springsteen’s antiwar hit Born in the U.S.A. to soundtrack his 1984 re-election bid. Beethoven wrote his Ode to Joy as a tribute to human equality, but Hitler made a habit of listening to it on his birthday. The meaning of music always belongs to the listener, and that includes the most powerful among us.
We all had a big laugh at something similar in the earliest days of the current pandemic, back when Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot asked her Hollywood pals to each sing a line from Imagine for a viral video that generated the ridicule it deserved. First, it was funny. The actors hadn’t agreed on a key, so their rendition sounded like a campfire singalong in hell. Then, it was infuriating. Society is collapsing and we’re supposed to admire these beautiful millionaires for singing sweet-and-sour nothings from the safety of their gated communities? “Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can.” OK, you first.
It’s pretty much impossible to imagine anyone bumping Imagine in America’s streets tonight. These protesters aren’t just imagining a better world inside their heads. They’re out in public, putting their bodies in harm’s way, demanding justice for black Americans and an end to racist police brutality. In certain swatches of protest footage, we’ve heard rap music blasting in the background — Chief Keef ’s Faneto, Lil Boosie’s Set It Off — explosive songs that have become protest anthems.
In 2020, Imagine has no such use. For most, it’s not a song about forfeiting possessions, or rejecting the authority of churches and states. It’s a song for staying home, for turning off CNN when the footage of police beatings becomes too sickening to watch, for closing your eyes and hoping that everything will be fine when you wake up in the morning. For white America, it’s easy if you try.