Bono: Saint or Sinner?

[HMKGrey]

<br>The little Irish fella is in the news again this weekend as he wraps up a six nation tour of Africa. There's an interview with him here: <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/podcasts/">blogs.guardian.co.uk/podcasts/</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> . Anyway, my question to the RI community is: WHERE DO YOU STAND ON BONO?<br><br>I'm very interested to hear some points of view as I tend to intuitively think he's a Class A asshole but most people I know think he's "at least doing something" or "the only person actually putting themself out there and trying to change things" - neither of which is exactly enlightening. <br><br>I definitely get the sense that he's playing us quite slyly in that he's an all out activist while he resolutely refuses to allow his band - his most valuable platform - to be politiciized in any way. Knowing a bit about the machinations of the music business this would appear to be straight marketing strategy. As Bono the singer he won't write anything too controversial for fear of alienating the record buying public in the central and southern states who've always mattered to him and his bank balance. However, as Bono the spokesperson, he'll show up to the opening of an envelope and be as pushy as possible without ever going <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>too </em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->far. <br><br>Cake. Eat. It. Comes to mind. <br><br>And then, of course, he's pals with GWB and he bangs on endlessly about forgiving Africa's debt when everyone with a modicum of history and geography knowledge knows that Africa is poor because it's been systematically raped stupid by the western powers for the last 200 years. <br><br>So, whadday say, folks? <br><br><br> <p></p><i></i>

[Mentalgongfu]

I don't trust Bono any further than I could kick his whiny, sunglass-wearing, ego-swollen, artless, pretentious, vampiric skull. <br><br>I can't say I can articulate a clear, empirical-based reason why, as I haven't thought about it that hard, but my animosity toward Bono has developed over time. <br><br>It seems to me the quality of U2's material has gone downward in direct corolation with Bono's "activism."<br><br>I mean, they went from The Joshua Tree," which is an amazing album, to this current crop of IMHO crap. <br><br>Something about Live Eight just didn't sit right with me either. Not just the dark political undertones with the G8 conference and the bombing (London, was it?). <br><br>Sure, he threw a big concert in the name of "helping Africa."<br>But what was actually accomplished? "Raising awareness?"<br>I'm all for getting together, holding hands, and singing songs, but at some point, just singing at your problems won't suffice. <br><br>I heard a halfway-decent report on public radio at the time, wherin an African pointed out HE did not need any "awareness," and was quite aware of problems. What the people needed was some damn assistance, not a concert thousands of miles away.<br><br>A quick look at the Live8 website convinces me the organizers are nowhere near subversive enough or disenfranchised enough to exact any real change. They will further empower the World Bank, U.N., and corporate interests, etc. <br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><br>5 days after the LIVE 8 concerts - the G8 leaders met. And they had heard us. These are some of the promises that YOU got them to make.<br><br> * $50 billion more aid per year by 2010<br> * Debt cancellation for 38 countries, with 18 benefiting this year<br> * Primary education for every child by 2015<br> * AIDS drugs to all those who need them, and care for all AIDS orphans<br> * Help double the size of Africa’s economy and trade by 2015<br><br>If these promises are kept, with no strings attached, they could save over 4 million lives a year by 2010. You personally helped to make that happen.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Hmmm. funding education=controlling education. <br>Aid $money comes with neat $trings attached. <br>Debt cancellation? I gotta read the fine print. <br>(Experimental?) AIDS drugs to all who need them?<br> Care for orphans ties into a post I'm working on for later this week. Orphans have no guardians. <br>And double the size of the economy- sounds to me like a bunch of people are about to get screwed by logging, mining, and oil rights, more waterways claimed by corporations....<br><br>Enough. My vote: Bono is working for the Dark Side, whether he knows it or not. <p></p><i></i>

[friend catcher]

I used to think of him as an annoying rock star with a naieve outlook on political economy but essentially harmless (except for the music which is aural crud). It was in the run upto the G8 at Gleneagles that I started to see him as a bona fide agent of the state. Him and his sunglasses hijacked a perfectly good opportunity for revolutionary dissent aimed directly at the participants of the summit and turned it into a safe and friendly protest-lite, many miles from the scene of the crimes. Instead of chaos and confusion we had corporate rock, sweatshop produced wristbands and a march that included the Chancellor of the Exchequor, all packaged in feelgood charity ethics.<br> I'm not sure if his face is as eminently punchable as Geldofs', as with those silly glasses it's hard to tell what he looks like, but I'd be happy to try. <p></p><i></i>

[Sepka]

I've never been able to understand why the political views of actors and musicians are considered worthy of attention.<br><br>So far as stuff like Live 8, it causes no harm, and it sells records. If it makes people happy to believe that going to a concert 'changed the world', that's stupid but harmless. <br><br>I've heard the argument made that it siphons off energy and money that would otherwise go to an actual charity, but I don't buy that. People are showing up to see the concert, not because buying a ticket is the only way open to them to donate to charity. The veneer of 'social activism' that comes with the ticket is kind of like the 'free' stuff that comes in one's breakfast cereal. In Bono's case, the 'free prize' isn't anything tangible, but rather a chance to play along in a sort of interactive fantasy by pretending that you and he are cooperating in a sociopolitical undertaking together. The announcement that the G8 goals were adopted in direct response to people buying tickets for Live 8 is just the closure of the roleplay. <br><br>-Sepka the Space Weasel <p></p><i></i>

[friend catcher]

Sepka- So far as stuff like Live 8, it causes no harm<br><br>I think that might be the point, causes no harm, a good day out for the family, excellent profits for corporations, approved charities do well. Meanwhile life goes on for rapacious financial institutions that work hard to keep (some of us whiteys') in the style to which we have become accustomed.<br>If the G7 at Seattle had been a circus of wellbeing as promoted by bono et al then many of the policies of the industrialised world would remain unknown and unchallenged. That is no longer the case.<br><br> <p></p><i></i>

[wintler]

Copy that, friend_catcher, the Gleneagles G8 showed Bono up as the most radical of all the lapdogs. Till then i thought he was just another well meaning but deluded christian, now i'm sure he's a most poisonous friend of antiglobalista's. <p></p><i></i>

[FranklinCase Admin]

I'm torn when it comes to this question regarding U2 and Bono. I want to believe Bono is a good guy, but something doesn't seem quite right, other than the obvious points that have already been pointed out on this thread. <br><br>An interesting thing came up, however, at a concert my friend attended just this last December. During one of the songs U2 was flashing all types of symbols, mostly religious ones, he said, but at one point he said a large Illuminati/Masonic symbol displayed itself on the screen. After he relayed this information to me I researched any ties I could find between Bono/U2 and the Masonic world, but I didn't find anything concrete, maybe someone can shed some light on this. <p></p><i></i>

[AnnaLivia]

has this been posted before? sorry if it's a duplication, but it's well worth the read for those who haven't seen it yet.<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.progress.org/2005/napo06.htm">www.progress.org/2005/napo06.htm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <p></p><i></i>

[HMKGrey]

Thanks AnnaLivia - something similar was written over at Counterpunch last year and I guess that's the thing with Bono - he's a polarizing character. I know a lot of very smart people who think he's wonderful and persistent (and consistent) and shoot holes in arguments like these quite easily. <br><br>Seems like most of us dislike him (and his sunglasses - for which, incidentally, he claims an eye problem) based on various largely gut based grounds but no one yet seems to have written the final damning piece on him. At least not that I can find. <br><br>Some of teh people I know are rather smug so I wouldn't mind arriving at a final damning summation, assuming there's one to be had! <br><br><!--EZCODE EMOTICON START ;) --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/wink.gif ALT=";)"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <p></p><i></i>

[AnnaLivia]

yr more than welcome for my sharing Loretta's info, Grey, which i deem important for the way it informs and shifts the readers' perspective, but i must say i can hardly think of less productive use of my time than doing the groundwork required to be able to form an opinion on a rock star (in this case one whose music i've never even heard, that i'm aware of). i could not care less nor think less about mr Bono than i do.<br><br> <p></p><i></i>

[friend catcher]

Something i've noticed about British (or in this case Irish) rock stars is that when they make it big time and the money is flowing in , they assume the lifestyle of landed country gentlemen, aristocrats if you like, and buy the big house in the country with horses ,dogs etc. They can't seem to help themselves. Shortly afterwards, if not before, whatever saving graces their music may have had deserts them entirely and they produce repetitive overblown repititions of their former work. Bono with his huge estate in Ireland would seem to follow this pattern. <p></p><i></i>

[The Omega Man]

Bono is a sanctimonious fraud who pals around with the likes of criminal scum like G.W. Bush, Paul Wolfowitz, and David Rockefeller. Bono, and these celebrity types like Angelina Jolie and her well-heeled dog Brad Pitt, are the frontmen for the globalists looking to aggresively re-colonize Africa. They arrive in a big phony liberal Trojan Horse with rabid predators like the U.N., the World Health Organization, Rockefellers, Oppenheimers, the IMF and the World Bank neatly packed aboard. Ready to launch their next wave of instigated wars, resource plunder, genocidal population control and finance of lackeys and puppets to keep the masses in check.<br><br>Anyone else think that there was something up with the alter-ego Mister MacPhisto he used to portray at concerts some time ago? Mister MacPhisto, was a mixture of the devil and Elvis. MacPhisto (Bono) adorned red devil horns slicked brushed back hair, painted face and gold suit. Maybe the joke was really on us all along and it was an homage to his dark master. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=theomegaman@rigorousintuition>The Omega Man</A> at: 5/30/06 10:42 am<br></i>

[yathrib]

I like, and still listen to, U2 back to the 80s. I don't care much for Bono. The other day I was listening to "Rattle and Hum," and his delusions of messiahship--even then-- were nauseating "All I got is a red guitar, three chords, and THE TRUTH!" Gag. But at least than he wasn't paling around with tyrants and corporate kleptocrats while remaining as sanctimonious as ever. He gives new urgency to the phrase "Shut up and sing." <p></p><i></i>

[jingofever]

In the book American Psycho (which was later made into a movie) the main character, Patrick Bateman (the psycho), goes to a U2 concert.<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>He has a cowboy hat on and his hair is pulled back into a ponytail and he's moaning some dirge - I catch the lyric "A hero is an insect in this world" - and he has a faint, barely noticeable but nonetheless intense smirk on his face and it grows, spreading across it confidently, and while his eyes blaze, the backdrop of the stage turns red and suddenly I get this tremendous surge of feeling, this rush of knowledge, and I can see into Bono's heart and my own beats faster because of this and I realize that I'm receiving a message of some kind from the singer. It hits me that we have something in common, that we share a bond, and it's not impossible to believe that an invisible cord attached to Bono has now encircled me and now the audience disappears and the music slows down, gets softer, and it's just Bono onstage - the stadium's deserted, the band fades away - and the message, his message, once vague, now gets more powerful and he's nodding at me and I'm nodding back, everything getting clearer,<br>my body alive and burning, on fire, and from nowhere a flash of white and blinding light envelopes me and I hear it, can actually feel, can even make out the letters of the message hovering above Bono's head in orange wavy letters: "I ... am ... the ... devil ... and I am ... just ... like ... you ..." And then everyone, the audience, the band, reappears and the music slowly swells up and Bono, sensing that I've received the message - I actually know that he feels me reacting to it - is satisfied and turns away and I'm left tingling ...<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Also, I have heard several people speculate that Bono is the Anti-Christ. We will see. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=jingofever>jingofever</A> at: 5/31/06 12:59 pm<br></i>

[friend catcher]

"Also, I have heard several people speculate that Bono is the Anti-Christ. We will see."<br><br>That can't be true, the Devil has all the best tunes which puts Bono completeley out of the frame. <br>Although that puts Dylan and Cohen into a suspiscious light <p></p><i></i>