By Rodolfo Elías.

In any casual conversation about John Lennon, there is one or four things that usually will come up: who was better, John or Paul; Yoko broke up the Beatles; John was actually an a**hole; and John’s wealth was inconsistent with his message of equality. This last one, usually in context with the lyrics of his anthem “Imagine”. 

     “Was it a millionaire who said ‘Imagine no possessions’?”, sings Elvis Costello in his song “The Other Side of Summer”, released in 1991. I can’t help thinking about the possibility that Paul had something to do with it, as they had been collaborating together in Paul’s 1989 album Flowers in the Dirt. And the reason it’s not farfetched to think like that is because on the same song Costello has a dig at Roger Waters, on the line, “A poor little schoolboy who said ‘We don’t need no lessons’?”. Paul has been best buddies with Dave Gilmour since the seventies, and Gilmour and Waters have been at each others’ throats since the eighties. 

     Steely Dan was more clever when they sang: “A world become one of salads and sun / Only a fool would say that,” also in reference to “Imagine”. They didn’t have a problem with John being a wealthy rock-and-roller and activist; they had a problem with naiveté. And mostly because they were no flower children. Actually, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker despised the hippie movement, the Summer of Love, and anything too idealistic. 

     But hearing all the bleeding hearts finding fault with John’s wealth is getting old. What was he supposed to do? Donate all his money to the poor or get rid of it as if it was a pest? His hard earned money that he made not only with his talent, but with hard work and sacrifice during the turbulent years of Beatlemania. It wasn’t easy money at all. Beatlemania consisted of a crazy itinerary of touring, TV presentations, little time to themselves, movies, and the non-stop outpouring of hit-after-hit. No to mention the loss of their privacy and the constant accostment from fans and the press, which left them all scarred, especially John and George. 

     John and George were known for being grumpy at times and would isolate themselves, because they both had PTSD. The incident with Imelda Marcos in Philippines really affected them, along with the Beatles’ last tour in the United States, after John’s statement about the Beatles being more popular than Jesus. And he would say later, regarding their fans and how the Beatles were used in many ways other than just for entertainment: “They gave their money and they gave their screams. But the Beatles kind of gave their nervous systems. They used us as an excuse to go mad, the world did, and then blamed it on us.” 

     But going back to the purpose of this piece. People keep finding fault with John’s wealth. To the point that some find it almost offensive, just because of what John says in “Imagine”. But, like Frank Sinatra, John Lennon did things (donating money for real causes or playing benefit concerts, for example) that he wouldn’t have been able to do without money. That is, if he wasn’t rich. Also, like Frank Sinatra, he did so without showing off. I don’t think Bob Dylan and those folk singers that made a career —and lots of money— singing on behalf of the disenfranchised ever did anything like that.

     If we follow the context of the verse that talks about no possessions, we’ll see that John is not saying that money and material things are bad. He follows up the first line that says “Imagine no possessions”, with “No need for greed or hunger”, on the third line. And then, he closes the verse with “A brotherhood of man.” John Lennon is clearly talking about the dream of a world where men live in harmony with each other, and aren’t driven by competitiveness and the greed of possessing everything they can; as promoted by a rapacious capitalist system that causes us to live in a dog-eat-dog world.

     Don’t we all want to have a decent, comfortable life and enjoy some of the things that only money can buy? To live off the product of your hard work, and get a decent retirement after working your fingers to the bone all your life. Also, there’s nothing wrong with being wealthier than the average. Money empowers you and gives you control that otherwise you wouldn’t have. I’ve had this conversation with different people and they’ve all agreed with that.

     There’s a person that has been used across the world as the perfect symbol of piety, goodness, generosity and sainthood. And that is Mother Teresa of Calcutta. For people, she epitomizes all that and more. And the reason behind it, is that there was a huge PR apparatus and propaganda promoting her “cause” of helping the suffering people, “the poorest of the poor”. But that was a myth that keeps getting debunked more and more. 

     One of Mother Teresa’s earliest exposers was journalist Christopher Hitchens, who claimed that mother Teresa wasn’t really taking care of the people with the work of her charity. If anything, the opposite, because in her facilities they were suffering the worst of neglects, as she denied them a more advanced medical care and proper pain alleviation. Hitchens also accused her of taking donations from questionable people, such as Haiti’s Duvalier family, as well as from other controversial figures and unsavory characters. 

     In her article Mother Teresa’s Sainthood Is a Fraud, Just Like She Was, Kitty Wenham writes about Mother Teresa: “She claimed that God had told her to help the poor whilst living amongst them, but in the peak of her career she spent very little time in Kolkata — the city she has become so synonymous with. She was jetted off to country after country; one day rallying against divorce laws in Ireland, the next being photographed with victims of natural and industrial disasters; none of which saw any share of the millions of pounds of funding her charity was receiving at the time.” 

     But not too many people talk about Mother Teresa the way they talk about John’s “hypocrisy.” Even though his wealth was the product of his immense talent and hard work. John Lennon was a hypocrite, because he was rich and sang about no-possessions: only a fool would say that.

You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We’re all doing what we can

Lennon/McCartney, “Revolution.”