U2start.com | Latest U2 News / Sightings

Originally posted by Remy:I think Bono lost touch a bit with reality, too much helicopter rides maybe. There's no European I know that is proud to be a European and will feel anything seeing the EU flag. But maybe thats me

Yeah waving the European flag will likely achieve more neutral reactions than anything else with some people who don’t look favourably at the EU, perhaps more the political side, being put off by it.

Pauln

6 years

Originally posted by Remy:I think Bono lost touch a bit with reality, too much helicopter rides maybe. There's no European I know that is proud to be a European and will feel anything seeing the EU flag. But maybe thats me

Bono speaks of a man that wasn’t touched by the hard economic recession in Ireland in the last 10 years. The EU bailed out their own European banks and wanted to ensure that they were protected before anything else. We’ve been lumped with a national debt that will take generations to get under control. Some of it our own doing but big EU corporations were also implicit. So while being part of the EU obviously benefits smaller countries, they’ve no alligence to them when things go wrong. It wasn’t we were all in it together, just sort you’re own mess out.

If this flag display will be the big change for the tour, then I won’t be tuning in too often.

mrgunter

6 years

He’s preaching, like his definition of America, an idea.

Where’s the anger? Might have been muffled under the bubbly going ‘pop’.

JuJuman

6 years

Originally posted by Remy:I think Bono lost touch a bit with reality, too much helicopter rides maybe. There's no European I know that is proud to be a European and will feel anything seeing the EU flag. But maybe thats me

I hear you; the EU is certainly not perfect, its treatment of Greece has been appalling, it doesn't manage to take a meaningful stand on the immigration crisis, and so on. But I am proud to be a EU citizen, for exactly the reasons Bono states. A lot more should be done: for a fairer EU, that much more strongly protects the environment, that can be tough with greedy banks and corporations, and so on. But then, let's put pressure on our politicians to make the EU better. The moment the EU breaks up, or is further weakened, it's a world dominated by Putin, Trump, China. I find the EU, with all its defects, and incomparably better alternative.

RememberEveryMoment

6 years

Originally posted by Remy:I think Bono lost touch a bit with reality, too much helicopter rides maybe. There's no European I know that is proud to be a European and will feel anything seeing the EU flag. But maybe thats me

You certainly don't speak for me on this issue, proud European here

The EU is far from perfect but there is no reasonable alternative to it.

trainmaniac

6 years

Another very proud European here. Bono's letter is a very good manifesto and why we should continue the EU evolution process.

BigGiRL

6 years

Originally posted by Remy:I think Bono lost touch a bit with reality, too much helicopter rides maybe. There's no European I know that is proud to be a European and will feel anything seeing the EU flag. But maybe thats me

I think this is exactly Bono's point...

Make Europe Great Again...or something like that...

I don't know... Personally I think music is already political in itself, one doesn't have to put an extra layer of politics on top of it.
On the other hand, I got into U2 basically because of the "No-more-war" sentiment (e.g. Sunday Bloody Sunday).
And there was always this bit of a "Church-thing" going on at the shows, and I don't mind that either, but I don't need Churches
to be political. Just "spiritual" will do fine for me.

So this essay/letter of Bono sort of epitomizes the struggle I always had with U2...

On the bright side: I think it's safe to predict American Soul will be dropped in favor of Summer Of Love

sparko

6 years

I'm fine with some of things EU brought us, but the idea behind it, already failed in too many points and ways. Speaking about EU, I even come from a country, that stopped existing in 1990, so things are even more complicated from my perspective (and probably those of 17mio other GDR'ers), living in that part of the country, where Nazism ermeged back to a high, A.H. would be soooo proud of

He's right, saying EU needs to re-unite instead of starting to fall apart, but that in my opinion shows, where the EU is at and where the EU brought the Europeans. These Brexit-like things are pretty much a very loud call to the EU "hey, something is wrong here! fix it!" but they don't hear "their people". Too many useless things they care about.

He's also way too focussed on his "America is an idea" thingy. We are not the United States of Europe. Forget that. Things are way different here. But how can he know? He is not daily affected in person by any of the big problems the EU has.

In "U2 and politics" - honestly, I understand the fact, Bono is trying to use the voice he has as a celebrity, of course, it surely already helped a lot to make people focussing and getting sensitive etc. BUT - they are still a rockband, which I wanna see play. The part of politics seemed to have grown over the years. I think 3mins a show would do it, but there you have these videos to certain songs of refugees, of foreign war countries, starving children, then you have the RED and ONE things, his speeches (getting longer and longer) - it's getting a bit too much and yes, sometimes I really struggle with it. You can skip or mute a bootleg, but unfortunately not a live show

Actually, I go to a rock show to leave all these daily struggles behind me, and Bono puts them back on schedule . On the other hand, there are so many "rich VIPs" in there, that even can't name more than Bono, who don't care at all for these problems - but they sip their champagne and don't follow the show, so they won't listen.

It's always difficult about this Bono+politics topic. I think the band many times roll their eyes, too, about how much it became part of the shows.

drogba29

6 years