John Lennon - Was he an OK dude?

[Jason]

Some people seem to say he was a wife-beater, a brawler, an abusive father, and broke up the Beatles. Now, recently, I did see this story, something I hadn't seen before, where it was claimed he indirectly caused Stu Sutcliffe's, an original Beatle, brain hemorrhage death. Well, Lennon had gotten into a fight with him before his death and had kicked him with a steel boot or something.

Anyway, I think he was an imperfect person but someone who wanted to better the world, despite his personal limitation. I don't know, maybe he had some guilt trip for the way he was personally, but my take is that his idealism was a bit naïve and we could see that in full display with the song Imagine and also with his peace campaign in the late 60s.

 

[Arantor]

we could see that in full display with the song Imagine

I remain in awe of the fact that the song Imagine is essentially the Communist manifesto recycled; by a man who had enough money not to worry about that.

 

[Jason]

I remain in awe of the fact that the song Imagine is essentially the Communist manifesto recycled; by a man who had enough money not to worry about that.

Yeah, I've heard that too. In fact, the song is very annoying to certain people and you could see how some average laborer wouldn't like being lectured on stuff.

 

[Darth Cognus]

A good musician who produced good things, a dreadful human being. People can be and most certainly are both.

 

[Dismal_Bliss]

Never knew him, lol. But I can sing Imagine at karaoke

 

[Arantor]

Never knew him, lol.

I mean, that would be difficult since he's been dead for 43 years.

 

[Jason]

The song Imagine was a beautiful song. It's not corny or cheesy. However, on close examination, it's easy to be highly cynical of the message.

 

[Ravenfreak]

A good musician who produced good things, a dreadful human being. People can be and most certainly are both.

Yep you can always appreciate a person's work but not like them as a person. An example is JK Rowling, she's a terrible human being but Harry Potter is cool IMO.

 

[Jason]

Yep you can always appreciate a person's work but not like them as a person. An example is JK Rowling, she's a terrible human being but Harry Potter is cool IMO.

Not always 🤔

 

[Arantor]

Separating the art from the artist is a question for the ages.

I suggest if you want to retain the moral high ground on never consuming works of creation made by people with tainted legacies, that you never consume anything creative. The search for the pure has long since been dwarfed by the impure, and trying to create a scale of ”eh, they’re not too bad” to rationalise why some consumption is OK and other cons isn’t... That‘s a path of madness.

For example, take Harvey Weinstein. Repugnant, odious man. But to shut yourself off from every film he ever touched because he’s a horrible little man? You’d never have Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, just for the sake of example.

 

[Jason]

Separating the art from the artist is a question for the ages.

I suggest if you want to retain the moral high ground on never consuming works of creation made by people with tainted legacies, that you never consume anything creative. The search for the pure has long since been dwarfed by the impure, and trying to create a scale of ”eh, they’re not too bad” to rationalise why some consumption is OK and other cons isn’t... That‘s a path of madness.

For example, take Harvey Weinstein. Repugnant, odious man. But to shut yourself off from every film he ever touched because he’s a horrible little man? You’d never have Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, just for the sake of example.

Being in the SS might be the dividing line. 🤔. I don't mean social security.

 

[Arantor]

What do you make of this painting?

 

[Empire]

Yes, he was a bad person. And he remained that way up in death considering how he excluded his own son,

 

[Dismal_Bliss]

Separating the art from the artist is a question for the ages.

I suggest if you want to retain the moral high ground on never consuming works of creation made by people with tainted legacies, that you never consume anything creative.

Truth.

I make the separation. I can appreciate the art and not the artist. Sometimes someone wants to nose in on my business and let me know that this or that artist lives a certain lifestyle, is a member of a certain religion, or subscribes to a particular political party, or... this list can go on and on, lol. I'm just like "So, what? I didn't want to know. Buzz off!"

 

[Jason]

Truth.

I make the separation. I can appreciate the art and not the artist. Sometimes someone wants to nose in on my business and let me know that this or that artist lives a certain lifestyle, is a member of a certain religion, or subscribes to a particular political party, or... this list can go on and on, lol. I'm just like "So, what? I didn't want to know. Buzz off!"

Yeah a relative whose a big Trumper was joking about Springsteen playing for Obama and basically I said the same thing.