But the other day, Brad Houser (whose bass guitar skills I will have the pleasure of listening to in-person, in Austin tomorrow, at what's apparently a one-night-only Critters Buggin reunion!) posted a surprisingly thoughtful Andrew W.K. article that addressed divisive politics in this country.
Apparently, the Village Voice has an "Ask Andrew W.K." column (or blog) and a "Son of a Right-Winger" wrote in to ask how he, a "liberal democrat with very progressive values" was supposed to "deal with" his father, a "super rightwing conservative."
W.K.'s response perfectly encapsulated feelings that I've had about partisanship for several years now.
It's rather long, but a few parts were especially remarkable.
First, his admonition to not reduce the complexities of life to black and white or "binary" systems reminded me of the dangers of tribalism and how the elite benefit from dividing us into two warring camps.
W.K. (8/6/14): This is the fatal flaw of binary thinking in general. However, this flaw isn't just ignored, it's also embraced, amplified, and deliberately used as a weapon on the very people who think it's benefiting their way of thinking.
But he really hit it out of the park toward the end when he spoke of the daunting, but ultimately rewarding task of trying to understand people with different opinions. In the end, we are all human, and we all (mostly) want to live.
WK (8/6/14): So we must protect and respect each other, no matter how hard it feels. No matter how wrong someone else may seem to us, they are still human. No matter how bad someone may appear, they are truly no worse than us. Our beliefs and behavior don't make us fundamentally better than others, no matter how satisfying it is to believe otherwise. We must be tireless in our efforts to see things from the point of view we most disagree with. We must make endless efforts to try and understand the people we least relate to. And we must at all times force ourselves to love the people we dislike the most. Not because it's nice or because they deserve it, but because our own sanity and survival depends on it.
Indeed, our very existence depends on the Golden Rule, that exhausting task to love.
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