I just got finished watching The U.S. vs. John Lennon, an inspiring and provocative film about John Lennon’s peace advocacy, and how the government attacked him for it. This documentary follows Lennon’s life after the Beatles, until his death in 1980, includes interviews with Yoko Ono and many others, and touches on freedom of speech, drug freedom, peace and military warfare, and the politics of power.
As I watched it, several themes impressed me. But nothing impressed me more than that so little has changed since then. In a very real sense, we are replaying, repeating, reliving history. This film makes real that the abuses and perversions of justice that we see today occurred decades ago, and in essentially the same form: public beatings of peaceful protesters, restriction of speech around high-profile political events, abuse of government power for personal and political gain, censorship, political appeals to “patriotism,” fear-mongering against immigrants and “aliens,” all in order to support direct government attacks on the First, Fourth, and Fifth amendments. Have we made that little progress?
Some quotes from the film:
- “The FBI under J. Edgar Hoover… used the FBI as an in instrument, almost as a political police force.” (Geraldo Rivera)
- “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” (Gore Vidal, quoting Samuel Johnson. Ironically, Johnson probably would have disagreed with Vidal and me as to what is a “patriotic scoundrel.”)
- “I don’t think he realized the strength of the American political establishment, and how much power it could exert onto him, with regard to silencing him. Or covert ways in which they might follow his activities.” (Chris Charlesworth, journalist)
- “It became clear to me that he was a guy of major principle, and he understood that what was being done to him was wrong. It was an abuse of the law. And he was willing to stand up and to show it, to shine the big light on it.” (Leon Wildes, Lennon’s attorney)
People, even in the government, were just as ignorant back then as they are today, as to the pervasiveness of the abuse of power. They had government insiders—FBI agents and governmental aides—portraying shock and bewilderment on-camera, as they recounted the persecution of John Lennon and of the anti-war movement. They explain how a warmongering government hates and fears those who would proclaim peace. And the more powerful their proclamation, the more virulent its hate and the more insidious its fear.
All the while, as shown in TV clips from the time, government officials repeatedly claimed ownership of the high-ground, filling their speeches with sounds of honor and patriotism, in order to disguise and rationalize their reprobate conduct. See, politicians and government stooges were cheaters, liars, swindlers, and moral reprobates back then, just as much as they are today. Don’t ever believe them when they tell you, “This law will never be used against innocent people.” Because when you give the government power, someone is going to abuse it.
Always watching!
-TimK
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