Gerard van der Leun has a brilliant post on the "Imagine" people (who provide a seemingly endless supply of fodder for the antiwar, pacifist movement). A couple of excerpts:

Four years in and the people of the Perfect World ramble through the avenues of Washington, stamping their feet and holding their breath, having their tantrums, and telling all who cannot avoid listening that "War is bad for children and other living things." They have flowers painted on their cheeks. For emphasis. Just in case you thought that war was good for children and other living things.

[...]

Four years in and the clear and present danger to the nation must be closeted in favor of the unclear and distant end of the world if we insist on exuding, as all life does, carbon dioxide. Send the nation and its armies and its wards and protectorates to the block, but keep the polar bears cold.

"Can't you see that worldwide wall of water sweeping in to inundate all life in 30, 50, 100, 500 years?"

"No. I cannot see it from here."

"Ah well, you are a warmonger, an evil person, a vile Christian, a shameless, shameless American.

"You must have shame. Shame is what we have when we look around us. We are ashamed of what was given us. You must join us; share in our shame at being Americans, at being the last best hope of earth.

"Join us and join the rising despair of people who, believing in nothing, believe only in the self, the life of the senses, the mollifying of guilt, of 'the expense of reason in a waste of shame.'"

Four years in and the fools in the streets multiply. They are tired of the war, but full of themselves.

So what mysterious force is driving these multitudes into the streets? Why is it morally rewarding to hate this country's leaders and embrace its enemies? What makes it feel so good? The answer is in your definition of what "good" is, otherwise known as morality.

Your morality is what guides you in your choices between right and wrong, good and evil. If you believe it's wrong to enjoy life in a successful capitalist society, you'll feel guilty about your high living standard and a disproportionate consumption of world's resources. By extension, you wouldn't want to miss the once-in-a-year opportunity to redeem your sins by supporting such a highly moral cause as an anti-war protest.

But what is the source of a morality that forbids to fight terrorism and views the United States as the enemy? Clearly it isn't rooted in the American tradition. Such a morality manifested itself on a massive scale for the first time in the 1960s. Many of today's protesters admittedly crave to recapture the spirit of those days. Many will be singing John Lennon's "Imagine."

I read, I gagged, I blogged.

The "Imagine" mindset is not a new topic for me. I try not to dwell on it, but this is one of those problems which does not go away by being ignored.

It would be nice if the Imagine lyrics were all in their collectivist imagination. Unfortunately, as I said last September 11, they want to enforce the lyrics:

It's as if they're stuck in an endless replay of John Lennon's "Imagine." Trouble is, they don't want to just "imagine." They want to enforce the lyrics.

I wish it was all in my imagination.

John Lennon, Republican? Imagine that!

It's easy if you try. Being a half-starved junkie crawling around on the floor while being dependent on Yoko Ono could do that.