Justin Kaplan- US vs. John Lennon
The movie that we watched this week was about John Lennon's life after the Beatles and about all of his radical beliefs on politics. The Vietnam War was a hot topic on everyone's mind during this time period of the 60's. Many people were confused and didn't know much about the war because they did not know exactly who we were actually at war with. Many of the people in the US did not like this war and thought that it was unnecessary and that we should have brought back all of our troops. The Ben Arnold reading begins with a very significant statement, “American wars have always been fought to musical accompaniments.” This was a very strong cause that Lennon fought for and really tried to show this belief with his songs. Lennon was strongly disliked by the Govt. because of his beliefs and the songs that he was creating. When hundreds of people congregated in government areas and sung Lennon's song, "Give peace a chance", this very much scared President Nixon and his staff because of the effect that Lennon could have on the American people. Gloria Emerson’s comment “You don’t [actually] think you’ve saved a single life” [by writing and singing songs about peace]? These were the type of comments that Lennon constantly fought everyday and just put behind him in his attempts to create world peace. John Sinclair, in the article Music and Radical Politics made this point and stated, “Rock music is revolution” and that “while the counterculture era may not have witnessed a huge number of songs that openly touted evolution, the entire gestalt of the rock music experience, which included high volume, drugs, sexual freedom, rebellion against authority, and so forth, symbolized the revolution that radical politics sought” (pg. 98). This was just another notch in the realm of politics that really helped Lennon change what the Govt. was doing. I believe that although Lennon might not have made that big of an impact on paper in creating world peace, his songs and rallies definitely played a great role in the pursuit of peace and happiness in the 60’s.