More thoughts on "Belief"...

     War is a negative thing; any truly compassionate human being will not accept war in and of itself as a good thing.  Thus, especially in recent times, wars have sparked protests and protest songs born of individuals who believed there was an alternative to war.  John Mayer's "Belief" reminds me in a way of John Lennon's "Imagine," the lyrics to which I will post below:

Imagine 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 that 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

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

     Although the two songwriters have an extremely similar message, they present them in different tones and styles.  In "Imagine," an ethereal portrait of an alternative world is presented within the lyrics, while "Belief" harshly points to belief in something (whether a religion, moral code, cultural superiority, etc.) as the root cause of conflict and war. 

     From the first time I heard "Imagine," something bothered me about it, something I couldn't quite put my finger on.  Superficially, the message within the song is one of peace among all people--in itself, a good thing.  However, if one looks deeper into the lyrics, this peace comes at the cost of religious freedom, personal property, and statehood.  When one peels away the layers of mysticism and sanguinity, the stark planks of pure socialism are revealed.  As even the World Socialist Movement itself declares,
"Imagine is a humanistic song par excellence, denying humans the place they often accord themselves in the spiritual universe, and instead relegating them to their material and exquisitely beautiful home of Earth. This Lennon does to urge his fellow men and women to unite in creating a world fit to live upon, one without countries, war, religion, or private property. Sharing this world together as a true 'brotherhood of man,' some in the World Socialist Movement have wondered if he wrote this song after reading a copy of the Socialist Standard, which is not impossible considering his extensive reading of radical journals following the demise of the Beatles, although it is not known if he actually read the Standard, a journal that has also been advocating a nationless, classless, moneyless society of common ownership since 1904."

     In the same way, John Mayer's song "Belief" also denys humans the right to individualiity and investigation, asking that, for the goal of peace, we refuse our innate desire to form a personal worldview and instead must accept perfect, absolute, indisputible equality in all things.  What is it that separartes humans from other creatures?  Probably a multitude of different elements, but in this list, must not creativity and individuality be included?

     In closing, I would like to say that I do not personally advocate conflict and war.  I also believe that a peaceful world would be the best, but my conscience does not allow me to sacrifice liberty and independence for the sake of a utopia; there simply must be another way to achieve peace without stripping away each human being to a naked and empty shell of humanity.

Sources:
http://www.worldsocialism.org/articles/imagine_by_john_lennon.php
http://www.metrolyrics.com/imagine-lyrics-john-lennon.html

Post #1: "Belief" by John Mayer (2007)

      If you listen intently to the lyrics, this is a war protest song.  As a side note, it is most logically concluded that the song is a protest to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan during the Bush administration, not only because it was written and produced during that time period, but also because of the line, "What puts a hundred thousand children in the sand/Belief can."  This is a direct allusion to the sands of the Middle East, where these two heavily protested wars were and still are being fought. 
    
     The more deeply embedded message, however, seems to be a general protest of the concept of war in general, stating that it is unfair and inhumane for human beings to die for other humans' belief "in how they think it ought to be."  Woven between the lines of the lyrics, I see one of the messages to be that belief in something is is not worth having if it means that human lives must be sacrificed for that belief.  Although I cannot pretend that war and death do not greatly disturb me, and I truly wish that there were an alternative to fighting, neither can I pretend that this song's message does not disturb me to some degree. 

     If humans did not believe in anything, if we allowed our fear of the unknown to control our innate desire to learn and explore new concepts and to choose certain ideals to hold and defend, what would separate us from mere animals?  If you think about it, all major advances in the world past and present happened because someone believed in something--whether a new idea, or an old moral--and held to that belief even in the face of death or ostracism and ridicule. 

     Advances in healthcare happened because someone believed that there was an microscopic agent causing disease, and this agent could be fought against using physical measures; America was founded because people believed that human rights are God-given and not King-given; within America, those rights were eventually given to all people because someone believed that all humans, no matter their skin color or origin, are equal.  Although belief will invariably ruffle feathers, and sometimes disturb the peace enough to cause death and destruction, I do not believe (no pun intended) that belief in itself is an evil thing because it has lead to more good than mere apathy would have ever created.