I've always hated this song. --- yeah ... not everyone is fond of peace. some just have to create and kill enemies to be satisfied.
On Tuesday, November 17, 2015 at 9:24:33 AM UTC-6, Bear Guy wrote: > > I've always hated this song. Nice to know I'm not the only one. > Living for today could be the slogan for a generation who has no qualms > about putting their grandchildren in debt jut to live for today. > > Imagine There's No ...Imagination > > > > * by Mark Steyn Steyn on the World November 17, 2015* > > > My friend Ezra Levant reports from Paris > <http://www.therebel.media/ezra_levant_in_paris_the_saddest_thing_i_ve_seen_so_far> > : > > *France has developed a tolerance for terrorism. They accept terrorist > violence as the new normal. They're numb to it now.* > > *Here's proof. In January of this year, Muslim terrorists launched a > series of five attacks that killed 17 people across Paris, including 12 at > the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. That led to a massive solidarity > march through Paris, with millions of people — including many foreign > leaders — swearing it would never happen again. But it did happen again, > ten times worse... * > > *But there's no massive march this time, no stream of foreign leaders > coming to pay their respects. And even at the actual site of the massacre, > the mood was subdued.* *As you can see in my video reports,* > <http://www.therebel.media/paris_terror_attack_updates>* there were a few > hundred people milling around, but there was no resolve, no conviction, no > purpose. Outside Bataclan, a street performer set up to entertain the crowd > — and no-one seemed to find it inappropriate.* > > I hope Ezra's wrong, but as I wrote four months ago > <http://www.steynonline.com/7062/the-knees-have-it>: > > *So the cowardly and evasive "support" the world showed after January's > bloodbath was a very clear lesson to the survivors in the limits of global > solidarity - and how it will go next time: We'll be sad when you die, too! > (Although probably not quite as sad and not in as many numbers, because, > like, been there, done that.)* > > (I believe I said something similar in my speech in the Danish Parliament > <http://www.steynonline.com/7209/freedom-security-and-incentivizing-violence> > a few weeks back.) > > Our world seems atrophied. Kathy Shaidle describes the scene at top right > as "why Paris is doomed, in one image > <http://www.fivefeetoffury.com/2015/11/15/why-paris-is-doomed-in-one-image/>": > > a man drags his piano, decorated by a "peace" symbol, by bicycle to the > Bataclan theatre, and proceeds to play John Lennon's "Imagine". > > What kind of parochial solipsist would think that an appropriate response > a day after mass murder? > > Answer: Apparently everyone in the western world, because, of course, it > "went viral". > > It is somewhat reassuring that most of those standing around him are media > hacks desperate for something to photograph. One would like to think that, > were a crowd of survivors and grieving relatives present, they would smash > the piano into kindling, save for the peace-symbol lid, which they would > thwack the pianist over the head with. > > John Lennon wrote "Imagine" in 1970. From the look of him, the pianist was > only in short pants back then, or perhaps not even born. Yet his response > to a very 21st century atrocity is to assure the world that the ancient > peacenik bromides still apply. When Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941, did > everyone coo because somebody dragged along a piano to the naval base and > played a hit song from 1896? Probably not "All Coons Look Alike To Me", but > maybe "There'll Be A Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight"? "(Casey Would Waltz > With The Strawberry Blonde) And The Band Played On"? > > But what else is there? The hippie peace symbol with the Eiffel Tower > added > <http://www.steynonline.com/7295/cool-civilizational-death-wish-goes-viral>? > One can take an indulgent and forgiving view of "youthful idealism", but > does our youthful idealism have to be so utterly geriatric? > > The European Union doesn't need to imagine John Lennon's "Imagine" because > it lives in it. As I wrote nine years ago in my book *America Alone*: > > *"Imagine there's no heaven." No problem. Large majorities of > Scandinavians and Dutchmen and Belgians are among the first peoples in > human history to be unable to imagine there's any possibility of heaven: no > free people have ever been so voluntarily secular.* > > *"Imagine all the people/Living for today." Check.* > > *"Imagine there's no countries." Check. The EU is a post-nationalist > pseudo-state.* > > *"Nothing to kill or die for/And no religion, too." You got it.* > > *And yet somehow "all the people/Living life in peace" doesn't seem to be > working out.* > > Nothing is a more reliable indicator of a lack of imagination than singing > "Imagine". We sing the same crappy songs but we do not live in John > Lennon's 1970. For example, what has changed since the year Lennon wrote > his apparently indestructible talisman? Also from *America Alone*: > > *Here's what did happen between 1970 and 2000:* > > *In that period, the developed world declined from just under 30 per cent > of the global population to just over 20 per cent, and the Muslim nations > increased from about 15 per cent to 20 per cent...* > > *Just to recap those bald statistics: In 1970, the developed nations had > twice as big a share of the global population as the Muslim world: 30 per > cent to 15 per cent. By 2000, they were at parity: each had about 20 per > cent.* > > *And by 2020...?* > > Well, you can't really measure those distinctions anymore. "Imagine > there's no countries"? It isn't hard to do: "Citizens" of some 11 "nations" > were supposedly involved in the Paris slaughter - native-born Belgians, > immigrant Frenchmen, "refugee" Syrians. It makes no difference. Because the > Islamic State has come up with something greater than their nominal > citizenship, something that commands fierce allegiance and provides them > with a real identity. > > While we were "living for today", Islam was playing for tomorrow. When you > sing "Imagine", you're saying you can't imagine anything beyond the torpor > of the moment. You can't imagine that there are people who don't think as > you do, and who regard the cobwebbed boomer-pop solidarity as confirmation > of nothing more than your flaccid passivity. > > Our enemies understand how myopic we are. They attack a concert by Eagles > of Death Metal, which is not without a certain blood-soaked irony: In our > world, "death metal" is a genre at iTunes. In their world, it's literal: > They bring real death metal to our "death metal" concerts, and pile high > the corpses. In our world, it's all pose and attitude. In theirs, these > words still have meaning. > > Speaking of which, I see a Canadian "journalism instructor", whatever that > is, doesn't care for my attitude > <https://twitter.com/AndrewMitrovica/status/666417557293920257>: > > *U know what I'm sick of Mark Steyn, "tough" guys like u hiding behind a > keypad while others do the fighting, killing & dying.* > > I'm not sure what point Mr Mitrovica is making here. I have not called for > more bombing raids, more boots on the ground, more war. Because, I regret > to say, it's not worth brave soldiers "fighting, killing & dying" for a > home front as enervated as ours. As I said a few hours ago > <http://www.steynonline.com/7299/the-leader-of-the-free-world-and-his-universal>, > > war is merely the sharpest tool of national strategy, and so, if you have > no national strategy, there's no point going to war. It's a complete waste > of time bombing some guy in the Iraqi desert when Angela Merkel is forcing > a German village with 120 people to take 750 "refugees". The overseas and > home fronts have to be in sync. > > What I have called for, for 14 years now, is more civilizational > confidence - as opposed to incremental surrender, of free speech, of > women's rights, and much else. And the absence of that civilizational > confidence is why we're reduced to waving obsolescent talismans like > "Imagine". Am I a "tough guy"? No. I was nervous, to put it very mildly, > when I landed in Copenhagen a month ago to speak on the tenth anniversary > of the Motoons - in part because four of the five people who'd appeared on > stage with me on the fifth anniversary had been shot at, firebombed or > forced into hiding > <http://www.steynonline.com/6911/a-contemptible-man-punches-down> and I > had no wish to be added to their number; in part because both the US State > Department and the UK Foreign Office had issued travel advisories warning > their citizens that it was dangerous to be anywhere near our event > <http://www.steynonline.com/7209/freedom-security-and-incentivizing-violence>; > > and in part because the same kind of social-media types who gloried in the > Paris attack were promising to attack Copenhagen > <https://twitter.com/Rita_Katz/status/647414135995674625?lang=en>. But I > was humbled and honored to join genuinely brave friends like Katrine Winkel > Holm and Douglas Murray in a European capital where free-speech events are > shot up and their speakers forced from public life. And I note that you > never see the likes of Andrew Mitrovica standing up for freedom of > expression in Copenhagen, or Paris, or during *Maclean's* battles over > Section 13 in Canada, or anywhere else. Which is a shame - because right > now the freedom to use the "keypad" is in danger. So I'll take lessons in > toughness from Lars Vilks, Charb, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Lars Hedegaard, Oriana > Fallaci and others - but not from "journalism instructors" who won't even > defend their own "keypad". > > I hope Ezra is wrong about Paris, but, as I said, for all our shiny > electronic trinkets, our world seems atrophied. Imagine that. > > ~I'll be joining Sean Hannity on Fox News Tuesday night US time, and Alan > Jones on the radio on Wednesday morning Oz time, which in fact is before > Tuesday night US time. So catch me tomorrow in Sydney and then yesterday in > New York, or whatever. > > > > http://www.steynonline.com/7298/imagine-there-no-imagination > -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PoliticalForum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
