Post by michele cryer on Sept 8, 2004 5:32:04 GMT
John Lennon on politics
Posted by **Purveyor of Truth** on Sep 1, 2004 at 11:35:02 AM:
Excerpts from "All We Are Saying," the book length version of the 1980 Playboy interview.
"It's not that I'm above politics, it's that politics isn't what I do. Politics is separate from society, while I'm not. Politics is inclusive, like art and eating and having babies; it's not just something you do every four years. As Gore Vidal often quotes, 'Don't vote for them, it only encourages them.' I've never voted for anybody, anytime, ever. Even at my most so-called political. I have never registered and I never will. It's going to make a lot of people upset, but that's too bad. I'm with the majority. The majority don't vote. Well, they know better." (p.95)
"'No messages from any phony politicians are coming through me.' I said that earlier and it's still true. That still stands. I dabbled in so-called politics in the late Sixties and Seventies more out of guilt than anything. Guilt for being rich, and guilt thinking that perhaps love and peace isn't enough and you have to go and get shot or something, or get punched in the face, to prove I'm one of the people. I was doing it against my instincts." (p. 96)
"All this bit about electing a president! We pick our own daddy out of a dog pound of daddies. This is the daddy that looks like the daddy in the commercials. He's got the nice gray hair and the right teeth and the parting's on the right side. OK? This is the daddy we choose. The dog pound of daddies, which is the political arena, gives us a president. Then we put him on a platform and start punishing him and screaming at him because Daddy can't do miracles: Daddy doesn't heal us; we don't feel better. So then we move the daddy out in four years and we get a new daddy." (p.125)
"[Power to the People] came from a talk with Tariq Ali, who was sort of a revolutionary in England and edited a magazine called Red Mole. So I felt I ought to write a song about what he was saying. That's why it didn't really come off. I was not thinking clearly about it. It was written in the state of being asleep and wanting to be loved by Tariq Ali and his ilk, you see. I have to admit to that so I won't call it hypocrisy. I couldn't write that today." (p. 216)
"Well, you make your own dream. That's the Beatles story, isn't it? That's Yoko's story. That's what I'm saying now. Produce your own dream. If you want to save Peru, go save Peru. It's quite possible to do anything, but not if you put it on the leaders and the parking meters. Don't expect Carter or Reagan or John Lennon or Yoko Ono or Bob Dylan and Jesus Christ to come and do it for you. You have to do it yourself." (p. 131)
Posted by **Purveyor of Truth** on Sep 1, 2004 at 11:35:02 AM:
Excerpts from "All We Are Saying," the book length version of the 1980 Playboy interview.
"It's not that I'm above politics, it's that politics isn't what I do. Politics is separate from society, while I'm not. Politics is inclusive, like art and eating and having babies; it's not just something you do every four years. As Gore Vidal often quotes, 'Don't vote for them, it only encourages them.' I've never voted for anybody, anytime, ever. Even at my most so-called political. I have never registered and I never will. It's going to make a lot of people upset, but that's too bad. I'm with the majority. The majority don't vote. Well, they know better." (p.95)
"'No messages from any phony politicians are coming through me.' I said that earlier and it's still true. That still stands. I dabbled in so-called politics in the late Sixties and Seventies more out of guilt than anything. Guilt for being rich, and guilt thinking that perhaps love and peace isn't enough and you have to go and get shot or something, or get punched in the face, to prove I'm one of the people. I was doing it against my instincts." (p. 96)
"All this bit about electing a president! We pick our own daddy out of a dog pound of daddies. This is the daddy that looks like the daddy in the commercials. He's got the nice gray hair and the right teeth and the parting's on the right side. OK? This is the daddy we choose. The dog pound of daddies, which is the political arena, gives us a president. Then we put him on a platform and start punishing him and screaming at him because Daddy can't do miracles: Daddy doesn't heal us; we don't feel better. So then we move the daddy out in four years and we get a new daddy." (p.125)
"[Power to the People] came from a talk with Tariq Ali, who was sort of a revolutionary in England and edited a magazine called Red Mole. So I felt I ought to write a song about what he was saying. That's why it didn't really come off. I was not thinking clearly about it. It was written in the state of being asleep and wanting to be loved by Tariq Ali and his ilk, you see. I have to admit to that so I won't call it hypocrisy. I couldn't write that today." (p. 216)
"Well, you make your own dream. That's the Beatles story, isn't it? That's Yoko's story. That's what I'm saying now. Produce your own dream. If you want to save Peru, go save Peru. It's quite possible to do anything, but not if you put it on the leaders and the parking meters. Don't expect Carter or Reagan or John Lennon or Yoko Ono or Bob Dylan and Jesus Christ to come and do it for you. You have to do it yourself." (p. 131)
