Imagine There's No Parties
Written in 2004
I wrote these words in 2004, not “imagining” how the mutual hostility and the degradation of our culture would escalate in the following 20 years.
The US two-party system fuels simplistic, black-and-white, us/them, right/left, dualistic thinking. You agree to live in one of two boxes which automatically pits you against people in the other box. You adopt attitudes, beliefs and policy positions that the party has assigned to your box, with no need to think each one through. You feel you know all there is to know about what people in the other box believe - and you may be right - so there is no need for dialogue.
Many see our two-party system as a corporatist party with two wings. With the illusion of choice, they allow competition directly between themselves but exclude others, i.e. third parties. Or a “uniparty”[1]through which Democrats and Republicans work together against the interests of the American people.
Now that the Democratic party has become the party of war, censorship and surveillance, it has abandoned the admirable principles for which many of us originally joined it. Many who remain identified as Democrats may not perceive the depths of betrayal. The Republican party has also become unrecognizable. Much media engages in compulsory mutual disparagement that keeps us focused on each other.
We live in a cultural environment in which both parties value, and fund, war over diplomacy and nonviolent, solution-oriented conflict transformation.
Below are
· The official version of Imagine with John Lennon and Yoko Ono
· My version, Imagine There’s No Parties
· Several examples from the Olympics, in which Imagine has become a universal anthem for peace and unity.
Here is the official version with John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
Imagine There’s No Parties, by Diane Perlman, 2004
Imagine there's no parties
It's easy if you try
No more left-right food fight
No more thinking black or white
Imagine politicians working for the higher good
Chorus …
You may say I'm independent
But I just want to stay alive
We have to learn to be transcendent
So our descendants can survive
Imagine no incitement
No insults, no disdain
No manipulating issues
For one-side’s political gain
Imagine joining forces, uniting Americans
Chorus …
Imagine no financing
No raising thousands by the hour
No corporate favors and romancing
Outspending rivals to buy power
Imagine politicians free to focus on higher goals
Chorus …
Imagine stopping global warming
Pollution and extinction too
Heeding scientific warnings
Creating jobs to do what we must do
Imagine politicians working to heal the Earth
Chorus …
Imagine no domination
Replacing war and the arms race
Using conflict transformation
Preserving peace in outer space
Imagine politicians using win-win strategies
Chorus …
Imagine we’re one nation
Not this split insanity,
Bringing to the world elation, elevating humanity
Imagine collaborating so all can live safe and free
Chorus …
You may say I'm independent
But I just want to stay alive
We have to learn to be transcendent
So our descendants can survive
Imagine at the Olympics
I usually love the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics which I think of as the opposite of war. Host countries invite and entertain the world, using highest forms of creativity and technology for elevation of humanity rather than destruction. I think of artistic surprises with delight as the opposite of a surprise attack.
Stevie Wonder singing Imagine for the first time at the Olympics (1996)
2020 Olympics Opening Ceremony in Tokyo
2024 Imagine Transforms Conflict between Volleyball players
Thanks to my cousin, Ellen Maidman Tanner for sharing this video with me of an elegant intervention that instantly transcended a conflict between women volleyball players.
“A truly epic, inspiring, uplifting, life affirming Olympic moment when the stadium DJ decided to intervene when things got heated. If you haven’t seen it .. just watch.”
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/stephen-fern-80a91213_imagine-activity-7237940433144672256-xH5O
Here’s the story in more detail.
[1] Thanks to David Schonbrunn, friend and editor for clarifying my misunderstanding of Uniparty.
Nicely done! Thoughts are so powerful. No one needs a party to perpetuate beliefs, for the latter predate the former, and are as mixed as there are individuals!
Well done. We have inherited "One empire, under surveillance, with deceit and oppression for all."
Defiance, not compliance! We refuse to BARE arms!