[caption id=”attachment_96006″ align=”aligncenter” width=”540″] (Associated Press)
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Though he may be best known for teaching the world to “Party Hard,” musician turned Village Voice advice columnist Andrew W.K. had some solid lessons for a “liberal democrat” who slammed his “super right-wing dad.”
I’m writing because I just can’t deal with my father anymore. He’s a 65-year-old super right-wing conservative who has basically turned into a total asshole intent on ruining our relationship and our planet with his politics. I’m more or less a liberal democrat with very progressive values and I know that people like my dad are going to destroy us all. I don’t have any good times with him anymore. All we do is argue. When I try to spend time with him without talking politics or discussing any current events, there’s still an underlying tension that makes it really uncomfortable. Don’t get me wrong, I love him no matter what, but how do I explain to him that his politics are turning him into a monster, destroying the environment, and pushing away the people who care about him?
Thanks for your help,
Son of A Right-Winger
Andrew W.K.’s advice took this “son of a right-winger” to task and called for the kind of compassion and tolerance that the world definitely needs more of.
“Go back and read the opening sentences of your letter. Read them again. Then read the rest of your letter. Then read it again. Try to find a single instance where you referred to your dad as a human being, a person, or a man. There isn’t one. You’ve reduced your father — the person who created you — to a set of beliefs and political views and how it relates to you. And you don’t consider your dad a person of his own standing — he’s just “your dad.” You’ve also reduced yourself to a set of opposing views, and reduced your relationship with him to a fight between the two,” Andrew wrote.
He then went on to give a surprisingly spot-on analysis of the state of ideological differences right now.
“The world isn’t being destroyed by democrats or republicans, red or blue, liberal or conservative, religious or atheist — the world is being destroyed by one side believing the other side is destroying the world,” he wrote. “The world is being hurt and damaged by one group of people believing they’re truly better people than the others who think differently.”
W.K. ended the letter with a call for love and the desire to question both sides.
“Love your dad because he’s your father, because he made you, because he thinks for himself, and most of all because he is a person. Have the strength to doubt and question what you believe as easily as you’re so quick to doubt his beliefs,” he wrote. “Live with a truly open mind — the kind of open mind that even questions the idea of an open mind. Don’t feel the need to always pick a side.”
Read the full letter at the Village Voice.
