An Open Letter to Roger Waters

November 8, 2007: Roger Waters is a rock musician from England, famous for his work with Pink Floyd. His music, especially his solo work, is notable for its leftist lyrics. Indeed, he recently played for Al Gore’s Live Earth show, and toured in 2006-2007 along side a gigantic pig emblazoned with the message, “Impeach Bush.” I decided to write him the following letter.

Dear Mr. Roger Waters,

I’m writing to ask some questions about your political views. I’m confused as to how you can hold certain views that seem to me to be contradictory.

1. You are an amazingly wealthy man, yet you have said that if someone meets a wealthy person they shouldn’t admire them, but should condemn them for stealing. Should I then condemn you as a thief? I understand you make a distinction between making money through art and making it through other means of production, but why would that change the underlying economics? Production is production. Maybe, you’re assuming there’s some mystical basis to art. But I understand that you are an atheist. Moreover, not everybody can make their living at art. Does that mean that they are inferior to you? What implications does that hold for your egalitarian principles?

2.You condemn Capitalism, but live in the world center of Capitalism, New York City. You obviously very much enjoy the life of luxury and even profited very handsomely from the sale of your condos in NYC. Why don’t you live in a Socialist country? Why do you allow yourself to make a profit, and yet seek to deny profit to others?

3.I think, maybe, I can answer the question about New York. Perhaps, you feel that you have to live in the belly of the beast in order to slay it. But the irony is that in order to be successful, you need Capitalism. You need the technology that controlled economies cannot produce. You need to pay top dollar to the best musicians around. They don’t work for free. And as the CEO of your enterprise, you take the lion’s share of the profits, hardly a communitarian principle. Moreover, you need marketing people, not community activists, to get your music sold. In every bit of your career, outside of your rhetoric and lyrics, you are a Capitalist.

4.Why don’t you condemn more strongly Islamic Fascist leaders? Aren’t terrorists a real threat, especially to artists like you? In your recent “Dark Side of the Moon” tour I saw many images of American soldiers being violent, but none of Muslim fundamentalists doing the same. Now, I did see an image of Osama Bin Laden, but it was shown beside an image of George Bush. Do you really think of them as morally equivalent? Did I also see an image of Stalin and Hitler along with Bush? Regardless of what one thinks of President Bush, is it really fair to compare him to the blood thirstiest dictators in history? Isn’t that gross overstatement?

Moreover, don’t you realize that you would be the first to go in a society ruled by Sharia Law? In the West you are a celebrity. In a Muslim fanatic society you would be stoned to death. I think you fare much better under Bush and Brown than you would under Hitler or Stalin.

Mr. Waters, I admire you as an artist and musician. But your politics seem odd to me, and contradictory.