All hail Julian Assange, Daniel Ellsberg and George Galloway (and most of all, John Lennon)

This motley crew never fails to enrage the right and burn the hearts of many of a progressive. I tend to love and respect anyone who upsets the apple cart, who pisses off both right and left, and who brings a ton of attention to matters that need attending to.

Whatever you think of these rabble-rousers – or even just one or two – we need these folks to piss off the media, the right wing and yes, many of our own. It’s the way the world works. If we don’t create havoc, expose the guilty and make us think, we are no longer a viable society.

Sure, there are times when these folks say or do things that go against our grain. But isn’t that part of the fallibility of doing the right thing? It is not often pretty and more often ugly. But it must be done. They may insult my sense of what is ethical, proper or ‘best for us’ but they change the world as we see it and rarely for the worse.

So, that’s why I will always treasure John Lennon – not just for his mastery of music – but as a stirrer of shit. When he was assassinated, my world spun off axis, never to fully return. In retrospect, what I miss most about Lennon was not so much his craft as a musician but as a provocateur, a progressive voice unafraid, aggressive and full of lacerating humour. We as modern progressives hate that because we lack it.

And that makes me mad. We need John Lennon more than we do Assange, Ellsberg or Galloway. But our modern musicians are too busy sucking at the teat of cut-out rock stars like Springsteen, Bono and Stephen Harper, sucking at the same conservative teat as your uncle.

We don’t have Lennon anymore but we do have iconoclasts like Assange and Galloway who love to piss off both sides to get at the truth. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, we need them. The truth must out, whatever the cost.

Cross posted at Let Freedom Rain.