He campaigned against the exploitation of women around the world. He decried economic injustice, and he denounced war at every turn. And in his mere forty years of life on our planet earth, he poked and prodded his generation to take on corrupt financial and bureaucratic elites in the name of reason, peace, love and justice..
The good news is that John Lennon, who was gunned down in New York City on 8 December 1980, is still very much alive. He is alive in his music and in his aspirations to remake the world into a tolerant place - devoid of greed and religious fanaticism. Lennon dared us to 'Imagine all the people - living for today'.
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This is in stark contrast to how middle classes around the world currently live. The middle class dogma goes something like this: 1) Obey your teacher, 2) Follow rules that make no sense and only serve to destroy your creativity and true persona, 3) Follow a religious theology that teaches that it has exclusivity or is the most refined path to God, or alternatively - simply go through the religious motions of divine belief. When Jesus, for example, told his followers to give up all their possessions in order to find God - insist that it does not apply to you, 4) Keep voting for politicians that give you two choices: a capitalist economy that turns man into a commodity - a mere variable in the grand scheme of trade and markets - or a capitalist economy that turns man into a commodity - a mere variable in the grand scheme of trade and markets. Quite a choice, isn't it? 5) Whatever you do, get your PhD to prove your intellectual status. If you have one in the humanities, then you can use that shiny degree to write articles and books that few understand and that no one reads. Oh, those people starving on the streets? Never mind them. Someone else can get a degree in social work and take care of it. You have more important things to do. So many footnotes to edit, so little time. 6) Better than getting a PhD, you can become a lawyer. Mothers are always impressed with lawyers - especially corporate lawyers. 7) Or you can kill 'em with your MBA. Nothing says 'fealty' or wilful slavery quite like an MBA. Remember, when times get tough, you can always dispatch with the very people that built the company - your employees. It's not like they will be losing any benefits anyway - since you never gave them health insurance in the first place. 8) Make sure you get married. Homosexual marriage? Are you kidding? You say you have a problem with possessive love? What is wrong with you?
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John Lennon's life embodied the best in humanity. It was a life devoted against all forms of discrimination, against war and the economic politics of greed. Discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sexuality or class is never justified and always wrong.
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The Generation X and Y middle class desperately needs to listen to John Lennon - before the state of their 401k plans becomes more of a permanent concern than the state of humanity.
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All I want is the truth now. Just give me some truth now. Thank you, John.
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To listen to 'Gimme Some Truth' by John Lennon please click on the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlzrNKN3rZI
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To listen to his beautiful song 'Love', click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GmVajkqLNU
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To check out Yoko Ono on Twitter - one of the most popular Twitter sites in the world, please click here, http://twitter.com/yokoono
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(Picture: One of the last photos of John Lennon - taken on the day of his death)
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Peace, J Roquen