"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives." - John Lennon

submitted by LarrySwinger2 from self.quotes

I put the most powerful part in the title. The full quote:

Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it.

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[–]thefirststone 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (6 children)

Here's a partial transcript of the interview from 1968: http://www.beatlesinterviews.org/db1968.0606.beatles.html

Q: "The boy (in the play) hates a lot of things and, in a way, you could say you were attacking these things -- like, organized religion, and the way people teach you in school."

JOHN: "I feel the same now, really, about organized religion, education, and all those things that everybody is still laughing at. But I mean, I expressed it THAT way THEN. I don't know how I'd express it now, you know. It'd be slightly different really. I've always sort of suspected that there was a God, even when I thought I was an atheist. But I beleive it, so I am full of compassion, really, even still. I just hate things less strenuously than I did. I haven't got as big of a chip about it, because maybe I've escaped out of it a bit. I think our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. And I think that's what I sussed when I was sixteen and twelve, way down the line. But I expressed it differently all through my life. It's the same thing I'm expressing all the time. But NOW I can put it into that sentence that I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends, you know. If anybody can put on paper what our government, and the American government, and the Russian, Chinese... what they are all trying to do, and what they THINK they're doing, I'd be very pleased to know what they think they're doing. I think they're all insane. But I am liable to be put away as insane for expressing that, you know. That's what is insane about it. I mean, don't you agree?"

This was when Lenny Bruce was the patron saint for public obscenity, remember. He wasn't going to be arrested for homeschooling his children or walking alone in the English countryside in the time of Covid. Academia wasn't teaching children to decolonize then, he was.

VICTOR: "We are living in insane times, aren't we, you know. We really are."

Q: "Yeah. And the thing that you feel, all the way through, is that -- there is this boy trying to get out."

Sounds like a real Holden Caufield, a "fascism comes carrying a cross" teenage edgelord who never grew up.

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (5 children)

He was talented. Didn't make him a perfect, or even really a good, person, by far. I think we should respect the accomplishments individuals have without putting them on a pedestal. Yeah, he was a fucking edgelord of his time, but he wrote some good shit.

Edit: I think both I fixed the nested commas and holy fuck, I needed to fix nested commas. So that's weird.

I think the same thing about Jim Morrison. Great music, smart guy, fatally flawed in numerous ways but he was talented.

I think we should be satisfied they were good at one thing, and not want them to be saints.

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

Jim Morrison... fatally flawed in numerous ways

His dad started the Vietnam War by staging the fake The Gulf Of Tonkin Crisis.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

Captain George Stephen Morrison was in charge of local forces but he wasn't captain of the Maddox, the ship involved in the incident, rather Captain Morrison's flagship was the USS Bon Homme Richard. And I think the start of the war falls mostly on Lyndon B. Johnson. Jim used to say his parents were dead and didn't mention his siblings.

I was thinking more of Jim Morrison's alcoholism, drug use, and womanizing. Most of his recordings he is performing drunk. His occasional guttural chanting in the middle of songs is him forgetting the lyrics.

[–]JasonCarswell 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

TIL. Saved. Good to know. I guess there's a lot of misinformation among those who report that they know the "facts", including me. I'll prefer to make general sweeping generalizations about the obvious nature of the grand deceptions when I finally produce my content.

" Morrison was commander of the U.S. naval forces in the Gulf of Tonkin during the Gulf of Tonkin Incident of August 1964, which sparked an escalation of American involvement in the Vietnam War. "
~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Stephen_Morrison

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

I'm pretty sure I've also repeated Admiral Morrison was responsible for the Gulf of Tonkin, and I guess in a way, although he wasn't an admiral yet, as overall commander he does have ultimate responsibility for everyone under his command.

The Gulf of Tonkin was like Iraq's WMDs, just an excuse for war. The incident itself was minor. It didn't have to start a war. There's an excellent documentary called Fog of War about Robert McNamara that's an interesting watch. It gives an insight into what they were thinking at the time.

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

was responsible

Directly or indirectly, it's fair to say he had a hand in things.

Errol Morris' Fog Of War is compelling and good, but also a very limited hangout.

It gives an insight into what they were thinking at the time.

IFIFY:
It gives an insight into what they claim they were thinking at the time - thus providing plausible deniability.

[–]yoke 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

nietzsche would agree.

[–]LarrySwinger2[S] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

He's not amused.

[–]yoke 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

lol

[–]Brewdabier 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

And who put these insane people in office ?, the voters.

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

That's what children think.

Voting is a rigged joke with (s)elections to let the voters think they have a say in things.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

If voting could change a thing, it already had been forbidden (free after Mark Twain).

[–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

That quote is misattributed to many people.