{"id":2921,"date":"2026-04-20T20:28:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T20:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/?p=2921"},"modified":"2026-04-20T20:28:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T20:28:34","slug":"imagine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/?p=2921","title":{"rendered":"Imagine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Opinion piece published Ilford Recorder, Romford Recorder and Docklands and East London Advertiser April 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Lennon wrote \u2018Imagine,\u2019 his iconic peace song, around this time 45 years ago. It was his humanistic response to the war the US was then waging on Vietnam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s threat to bomb Iran \u2018back to the stone ages where they belong\u2019 channelled US air force commander Curtis Le May. In 1965 Le May demanded that \u2018\u2026North Vietnam stop their aggression, or we\u2019re going to bomb them back into the Stone Age.\u201d  He was the inspiration for two of the unhinged characters in the apocalyptic film Dr Strangelove. Trump and his circle evoke frightening parallels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a Humanist, I of course want rid of the vile Iranian regime and its fundamentalist religious ideology. But bombing doesn\u2019t change regimes or ideologies. Not least when done by rival religious fundamentalists. It will not be lost on the theocrats that Pete Hegseth, US Secretary of War and sword-bearer for the Christian Right, boasts a tattoo harking back to the crusades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

East London was the first place to ever suffer aerial bombing. In 1915 Zeppelins dropped grenades on Dalston, Shoreditch and Leytonstone. Sylvia Pankhurst, suffragette, peace activist and humanist, described how \u2018panic ran rampant\u2019 in Hoxton. Angry mobs attacked businesses of Londoners associated with the \u2018enemy.\u2019 Increasingly intense air raids followed. By the end of WWI, 668 Londoners had been killed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pankhurst campaigned against aerial bombing, and its devastating impact on innocent civilians. Angered by the failure of the 1932 World Disarmament Conference to outlaw it, Pankhurst erected an anti-air war memorial near her home in Woodford Green. It\u2019s the world\u2019s first anti-war memorial, and now a Grade 2 listed building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

East London went on to suffer the horrors of the blitz in WWII. The spirit shown then is a lesson in how counterproductive it can be to rain destruction on people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Humanists don\u2019t have hymns, but Lennon\u2019s song could in some ways serve as a humanist anthem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cImagine 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. Imagine there’s no countries; it isn’t hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too. Imagine all the people, living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Kaufman
Chairperson East London Humanists<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Opinion piece published Ilford Recorder, Romford Recorder and Docklands and East London Advertiser April 2026 John Lennon wrote \u2018Imagine,\u2019 his iconic peace song, around this time 45 years ago. It was his humanistic response to the war the US was … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s9c4oP-imagine","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2921"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2921"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2924,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2921\/revisions\/2924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}