Live for tomorrow today

“Imagine there’s no Heaven, it’s easy if you try. No Hell below us, above us only sky. Imagine all the people, living for today...” The song “Imagine” has been linked to John Lennon much like “I have a dream” has been linked to Martin Luther King, Jr. Every year on the anniversary of their births and deaths, the media pulls out the same tired references to the "dreams” that they publicly reflected on as if one song or speech defined them both. Such soundbites do a tremendous disservice to the legacies of both men; especially Dr. King (John Lennon, after all, was just an artist), but I digress...

The song “Imagine” seems to ponder a utopian fantasy: but a world with no religion, no countries, and no posessions would probably lead to a wasteland where billions of people live like animals. If not for the constructs of God, Heaven, or Hell: how many people would become hedonistic nihilists? If there were no governments to enforce order and rules: how many people would end up being afraid to leave their houses, afraid to stay in their houses? If people had to share everything, what motivation would they have to value or take care of anything? Some may say that John Lennon was a dreamer, but perhaps he should have stuck with the tangerine trees and marmalade skies...

The decline of traditional values and beliefs over the last century or two has been a mixed bag at best. The average person has more freedom and access to information; and is more likely to “live for today,” but there has been a price. As our societies have “advanced,” so have our rates of murder, crime, incarceration, divorce, broken families, addictions, obesity, preventable illnesses, etc. The structures that used to bind people together as human beings (family, religion, neighborhoods, civic duty, national pride, etc.) have been replaced by what: television, the internet? In many ways, mankind seems to be experiencing de-evolution...

On the global stage: we have become increasingly efficient at raping the world of its natural resources so that more and more people can have lots of posessions. Multi-national corporations and corrupted governments are well on their way to destroying the “first world,” and the "third world" isn't far behind. Food is genetically re-engineered and mass-produced, with little attention paid to environmental or human impact. Free Trade has become the new world's religion, and it is causing more death and destruction than the old world’s religions ever did (with far fewer benefits). What kind of world are we leaving to our children while we're "living for today?"

The "dream" of everyone living for today is far more attainable than the "dream" of everyone judging others by the content of their character. The explanation for both realities may be related to the likelihood that human beings aren't as evolved as we'd like to think we are...