John Lennon Said He Was a ‘Moral Coward’

When looking back on his life, John Lennon doubted his moral conviction in his youth. In his adult life, he took a moral stance on political issues and considered himself an activist. He didn’t think this was an inherent quality, though. He described a specific incident with his mother that made him feel particularly cowardly.

John Lennon described himself as a moral coward because of an incident with his mother

While Lennon lived with his mother and father in his earliest years, he moved in with his aunt after his parents separated. His mother lived close by and remained a part of his life, but he didn’t see her very often when he was young. 

One day, his mother came by the house where Lennon lived with his aunt after having an accident. He didn’t know how to react when he saw her.

“My mother [Julia] came to see us one day in a black coat with her face bleeding,” he said, per The Beatles Anthology. “She’d had some sort of accident. I couldn’t face it. I thought, ‘That’s my mother in there, bleeding.'”

Lennon fled the house, which made him feel weak.

“I went out into the garden,” he said. “I loved her, but I didn’t want to get involved. I suppose I was a moral coward. I wanted to hide all feelings.”

John Lennon later pushed morals and politics in his music and life

Decades later, after The Beatles broke up, Lennon became politically active as an artist. He protested the Vietnam War and promoted peace in his music. With his wife, Yoko Ono, Lennon began hosting “bed-ins,” or protests during which they sat in bed in their pajamas. They invited the media into the rooms where they hosted these events and spoke about the importance of peace.

“We knew whatever we did was going to be in the papers. We decided to utilize the space we would occupy anyway, by getting married, with a commercial for peace,” Lennon said. “We would sell our product, which we call ‘peace.’ And to sell a product, you need a gimmick, and the gimmick we thought was ‘bed.’ And we thought ‘bed’ because bed was the easiest way of doing it because we’re lazy.”

His involvement in politics was relatively shallow

Lennon spoke loudly in support of peace, but he wasn’t taking a very brave stance. By the early 1970s, he’d already decided he didn’t want to be seen as a political figure because he believed it was detrimental to his career. He valued his likability above the causes he claimed to care about.

Beyond that, though, Lennon was not one to practice what he preached. He spoke about how important peace was, but he behaved violently in his private life. His children, ex-wife, and girlfriends spoke about his explosive temper, and Lennon admitted to being abusive when angry. This private personality does not align with the public persona who encouraged people to “Give Peace a Chance.” 

In some ways, it feels that Lennon’s political activism was a way to separate him from the gleaming image of The Beatles. While he may have believed what he said on some level, he didn’t practice it or value it enough to continue supporting when his career was on the line.