Off the Cuff: Maybe?

Off the Cuff

The song “Imagine” by John Lennon is generally cited as the defining anthem of the peace and love movement of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, but as insipid and mawkish as Lennon’s opus magnus is, no song has ever matched the corn contained in “Share the Land,” other than maybe “How Much Is That Doggie In the Window?”

Written by Burton Cummings of The Guess Who and released in 1970, “Share the Land” reached Number 10 on the Billboard charts. The refrain says it all:

Maybe I’ll be there to shake your hand

Maybe I’ll be there to share the land

They’ll be giving away

When we all live together (we’re talkin’ ‘bout together now)

First, what’s with that “maybe” thing? Like, maybe he’s NOT going to share the land? This is some practical joke? Okay, let’s just ignore the equivocation.

Later in the song a young couple is walking by a river, talking and laughing, and everyone is living together in harmony, mutual understanding, charity, and respect. Moments later, EVERYONE is walking by the river, and Mr. Cummings tells the listener that they’re “walkin’, singin’, talkin’, smilin’, laughin’, diggin’ each other.” Trust me, they’re all high as kites, which is the state necessary to believing there really is free lunch and laughing at everything.

“Share the Land” came on Sirius Classic Vinyl today, October 29, 2024, around 1:30 pm Eastern Time. I knew, right there and then, I was being called by a Superior Power to set the record straight concerning the rivalry between “Imagine” and “Share the Land” for Stupidest Song Since ‘Tell Laura I Love Her.”

The lyrics of “Share the Land” epitomize the satanic lunacy that underprops every liberal brain sneeze. Did I mention I was a campus radical, an organizer-activist of the left, and that the first Republican I voted for after coming to my senses was Bush the Elder in 1992?

In 1991, I had experienced the inimitability of meeting Hillary and Bill – just me and them and the manager of a B-and-B in the same room together – and realized, when the episode was over, that I had just encountered two of the most peculiar people on the planet – raging narcissists, both, each in his/her own unique way. Bill with an insatiable need to be admired; Hillary with an insatiable need to control everything going on within thirteen billion light-years of her. She was imperial, but obviously mad in both senses of the term. Bill, on the other hand, was a snake. All that in less than 60 seconds. Well, that and the fact that the night before, they argued until 3:00 AM, which I heard because only a paper-thin wall separated my room from theirs. Just trust me. Anyway, that encounter caused me to never again vote for a Demoncrat.

Because I was a radical liberal atheist idiot at one time and for quite some time, I understand the liberal mind. And because I know the liberal mind, I know it is impossible to have a conversation about anything meaningful with a liberal. First, they won’t have intellectually honest conversations with anyone who is not a liberal.

“I don’t talk about politics,” says the liberal to the conservative. He’s lying. He’ll talk about politics, but only when he’s in an echo chamber. When I try to get him to rationally explain his worldview, he doesn’t want to talk politics because he can’t rationally explain his worldview because his worldview is irrational.

“What is a progressive?” I once asked a reasonably intelligent fellow who had just announced he was one.

“Well,” he intoned after a few pregnant moments, during which he feigned what he thought sophisticated deliberation looks like, “we progressives are tolerant and very open-minded.”

Two days later, after asking me to explain my faith, he told me that believing in the bodily Resurrection of Christ Jesus was “nuts.”

“So, Jim,” I said, as calm as you please, “I’m curious…how do you square being tolerant and open-minded with thinking that the foundation of my faith is a fairy tale that only children and the insane would believe? Can you explain that for me?”

Well, of course he couldn’t! He stammered around for a bit, then made some lame excuse, and exited, stage left. Tolerant and open-minded my heine.

Anyway, back to “Share the Land.”

After expressing wonder at the corny, sappy, banality of the lyrics, my wife, Willie, asked, “Who is ‘They’?” (Full disclosure: When “Share the Land” comes on the music box in the car, we both begin singing along like we’re performing with the Stanislauski Opera Troupe. It’s great fun. Highly recommendable.)

Anyway, Willie was referring to the “They” who will be giving the land away. I think it’s high time we learned the answer to “Who are ‘They’?” After all, we have been waiting now for fifty-four years for the land to be given away. I think it’s time we held “They” accountable, don’t you?

“They” could be Biden. It occurs to me that the song may be prophetic in the tradition of Isaiah, so the idea that “They” is a person or persons on the current scene is not outrageous. After all, Biden tried to forgive billions in student loans. It’s possible that he was inspired by “Share the Land” – as in “Maybe I’ll be there to revoke your debt, maybe I’ll be there to buy you that Corvette” – meaning taxpayers like you and me would have been forced to pay the bad loans, one way or another, so Biden certainly qualifies as “They.”

And by the way, it is deceiving to say that student loans will be forgiven. The accurate way of putting it is to say the loans will be REASSIGNED…TO YOU AND ME AND OTHER HARD-WORKING AND RESPONSIBLE PEOPLE!!!

Please. I implore you, to vote Trump and then go down the ballot, voting only Republican. It is so very soul-cleansing. Take it from a guy who once thought “Share the Land” should be our National Anthem.

Copyright 2024, John K. Rosemond