Individual in History

For my NHD project, Individuals in History, I picked John Lennon.

John Lennon may seem a bit offbeat, but John Lennon made as much a difference as Henry David Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. John Lennon formed his philosophical ideals because of his three predecessors.

He grew up and played music during a cultural revolution. The entire west coast was leaving its sheltered War World II nuclear family ideals and moving toward a new future. During the 60's, people were becoming more and more evident of world wide events. Radio, TV, telephones, cars, planes, etc., were increasing the speed at which information traveled. Americans in the west could know about problems in China and Russia in the east. This globalization opened people's eyes in the west, about other countries, and our own. People in America were becoming more and more socially active. In America, the countercultural/social revolution (esp. the sexual revolution) in stir. The youth were rebelling against social norms and the conservative views of the 50s, demanding more rights for women, homosexuals, and minorities. Questioning authority and criticizing government, and, the biggest form of rebellion, sex and drugs. The anti-war movement, the civil rights movement, the chicano movement, and the "new left" were major issues of the time formed by the rebellious youth.

John Lennon played an important role in this countercultural revolution, as all musicians did. Music at that time was an avenue for change. One example would be Jefferson Airplane, a band who's lyrics induced rebelliousness into the masses like a syringe into the brachial artery. John Lennon's music reverberated throughout the 60's decade. His music helped change the culture of the western world. His lyrics about peace and love were messages of hope for a changing world, and he himself symbolized this change from his birth, all the way to his tragic assassination. That is why I chose him for my NHD project.