Yes, he covered a lot of ground there...religious divisions, political and national divisions, and divisions inspired by greed and materialism of every kind.

You see, religion in itself is not the problem. National identity in itself is not the problem. Material goods and private ownership in themselves are not the problem. People's negative or excessive use OF religion and nationalism is the problem. Greed for more material things than one needs, and the willingness to do harm to others to get those goods, is the problem.

It always comes down to people's behaviour...good or bad. That is the determinant. And their behaviour is inspired by their beliefs, of course...but the same set of professed beliefs can often inspire excellent behaviour in one person and awful behaviour in the next...so it is the interpretation and use of beliefs that is vital. Do they have a mature understanding of their belief..or a caveman's understanding of it, that's the question? If it's the latter, then they can be quite dangerous under certain circumstances...as with the raging crowds that gathered in the Sudan, calling for that English teacher's blood over the naming of a teddy bear! The more mature Muslims who were actually in some of the positions of authority there had the sense to realize that she had intended no real offence, and they simply pardoned her and sent her back to England. In the hands of the street mob, she would have been killed. There's the difference.

John Lennon's song serves as an interesting parable...saying, "What if we could rise above all these things and treat each other as equals?"

It proposes something so far from ordinary human consciousness that it can't be seen as literally possible, but rather as a symbolic lesson, a signpost which might make people think and question their customary divisions.