Utopia, by John Lennon
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
Bullshit. Alas.
I remember our teachers from elementary school. They tried their best to educate us about the importance of peace. In those years, the war in Kosovo was the latest one and 9/11 was on the horizon. I recall many events organized by my school, for example in the medieval church of my village, with readings and songs against conflicts performed by us children. The message from our teachers and parents has always been very clear: peace is not only good, it is essential.
An educator in particular, Paola, wrote songs about the importance of peace. They condemned hatred and contained a clear messages for children. They had sweet melodies and were simple to learn. I still remember some verses after thirty years. Translated into English, the chorus of one song would start with:
Peace is easy
It doesn’t cost a thing
But after having seen thirty years of awful news, why the hell should I believe in peace?
WWII left deep scars in my parents’ generation and the partisans, very active in my area, have always been considered heroes. The concept of resistance, alongside peace, has always been particularly important and I would never argue with that. I’ve been raised with these principles and have always done my best to stick to them: when voting, expressing and listening to opinions, and maybe teaching someone younger than me. I’ve never been an activist, but at least my ideas are quite clear.
The main problem is that History repeats itself. Here in Italy the lesson learned from WWII quickly faded away, at least from the late ’90s — in the rest of the world the situation is not very dissimilar.
Racism is not over.
Women’s rights are put in discussion again.
Fascism is coming back almost as a century before.
Dang, one hundred years. We humans are amazing in certain aspects. If we have an [economic] interest in something, we spend the one thousand percent of the resources we have to explore and grow it — see computers in the last fifty years. On the other hand, we may have some genes in our DNA that make us fucking forget the past. There have been dozens of wars, millions of deaths, uncountable protests, martyrs and assassins… And yet here we are, right where our ancestors used to be.
We have AI and smartwatches when they had brand new Model Ts, but the humans who use these devices are the very same ones.
I’m talking about politicians of course, because politics never changed across centuries, but not solely. What really bothers me is the common people, because since we are the vast majority of the world population we should be responsible for it. I don’t think I received a better education than most people, but I remember studying quite enough horrors of the past.
Why can’t we remember are we ignoring the past?
So please forgive me, John from up there. I respect you as a huge artist and musician, but I can’t really imagine what you have described. If not as an utopia.
🎧 Some metal from Québec
📖 Still on Dawn
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Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
Bullshit. Alas.
I remember our teachers from elementary school. They tried their best to educate us about the importance of peace. In those years, the war in Kosovo was the latest one and 9/11 was on the horizon. I recall many events organized by my school, for example in the medieval church of my village, with readings and songs against conflicts performed by us children. The message from our teachers and parents has always been very clear: peace is not only good, it is essential.
An educator in particular, Paola, wrote songs about the importance of peace. They condemned hatred and contained a clear messages for children. They had sweet melodies and were simple to learn. I still remember some verses after thirty years. Translated into English, the chorus of one song would start with:
Peace is easy
It doesn’t cost a thing
But after having seen thirty years of awful news, why the hell should I believe in peace?
WWII left deep scars in my parents’ generation and the partisans, very active in my area, have always been considered heroes. The concept of resistance, alongside peace, has always been particularly important and I would never argue with that. I’ve been raised with these principles and have always done my best to stick to them: when voting, expressing and listening to opinions, and maybe teaching someone younger than me. I’ve never been an activist, but at least my ideas are quite clear.
The main problem is that History repeats itself. Here in Italy the lesson learned from WWII quickly faded away, at least from the late ’90s — in the rest of the world the situation is not very dissimilar.
Racism is not over.
Women’s rights are put in discussion again.
Fascism is coming back almost as a century before.
Dang, one hundred years. We humans are amazing in certain aspects. If we have an [economic] interest in something, we spend the one thousand percent of the resources we have to explore and grow it — see computers in the last fifty years. On the other hand, we may have some genes in our DNA that make us fucking forget the past. There have been dozens of wars, millions of deaths, uncountable protests, martyrs and assassins… And yet here we are, right where our ancestors used to be.
We have AI and smartwatches when they had brand new Model Ts, but the humans who use these devices are the very same ones.
I’m talking about politicians of course, because politics never changed across centuries, but not solely. What really bothers me is the common people, because since we are the vast majority of the world population we should be responsible for it. I don’t think I received a better education than most people, but I remember studying quite enough horrors of the past.
Why can’t we remember are we ignoring the past?
So please forgive me, John from up there. I respect you as a huge artist and musician, but I can’t really imagine what you have described. If not as an utopia.
🎧 Some metal from Québec
📖 Still on Dawn