Laurel and Hardy. That's John and Yoko, and we stand a better chance under that guise, because all the serious people, like Martin Luther King, and Kennedy, and Gandhi, got shot.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the safety found in humor and the risks faced by serious advocates for change.
In this quote, John Lennon draws an intriguing parallel between comedic duos like Laurel and Hardy and the serious figures of history who advocated for peace and justice, implying that perhaps adopting a lighter persona offers a semblance of protection in a world that often punishes those who challenge the status quo. The mention of iconic individuals such as Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, and Gandhi, all of whom were assassinated, highlights the peril that accompanies intense activism, suggesting that humor might be a safer path for bringing about change.
In practice
In a speech about peace, one might use this quote to emphasize the balance between seriousness and humor in activism.
When I get older losing my hair many years from now. Will you still be sending me a Valentine. Birthday greetings, bottle of wine? If I'd been out till quarter to three would you lock the door? Will you still need me, will you still feed me, When I'm sixty-four?
The writing of the Beatles, or John and Paul's contribution to the Beatles in the late sixties - had a kind of depth to it, a more mature, more intellectual approach. We were different people, we were older. We knew each other in all kinds of different ways than when we wrote together as teenagers and in our older twenties.
I put things down on sheets of paper and stuff them in my pockets. When I have enough, I have a book.
Guilt for being rich, and guilt thinking that perhaps love and peace isn't enough and you have to go and get shot or something.
I regret profoundly that I was not an American and not born in Greenwich Village. It might be dying, and there might be a lot of dirt in the air you breathe, but this is where it's happening.
I've been baking bread and looking after the baby...Everyone else who has asked me that question over the last few years says. 'But what else have you been doing?' To which I say, 'Are you kidding?' Because bread and babies, as every housewife knows, is a full-time job. After I made the loaves [of bread,] I felt like I had conquered something. But as I watched the bread being eaten, I thought, Well, Jesus, don't I get a gold record or knighted or nothing?
The intellectual and moral satisfaction that I failed to gain from the utilitarianism of Bentham and Mill, the revolutionary methods of Marx and Lenin, the social contract theory of Hobbes, the "back to nature" optimism of Rousseau, and the superman philosophy of Nietzsche, I found in the nonviolent resistance philosophy of Gandhi. I came to feel that this was the only morally and practically sound method open to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom.
Answer the big question of eternity, and the little questions of life fall into perspective.
The past has no power over the present moment.
The principles which men give to themselves end by overwhelming their noblest intentions.
I try to take what voice I have and I give it to those who don’t have one at all.
If we must not act save on a certainty, we ought not to act on religion, for it is not certain. But how many things we do on an uncertainty, sea voyages, battles!
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