"...like to post this again because its one of the most sensible speeches that I've ever read...and its dedicated to Crabbybonski who's a U2 Fanatic.
..."
Bono speaks on the culture of idealism and the art of the possible
Harvard University Commencement Speech
by Bono, lead singer of rock group U2
Thank you for that introduction. But I suppose I should say a few more words about who I am and what on earth I'm doing up here.
My name is Bono.
My name is Bono, and I'm a rock star.
Now, I tell you this, not as a boast but as a kind of confession. Because in my view the only thing worse than a rock star is a rock star with a conscience -- a celebrity with a cause ... OH, DEAR!
Worse yet, is a singer with a conscience --
a placard-waving, knee-jerking, fellow-travelling activist with a Lexus, and a swimming pool shaped like his own head.
I'M A SINGER.
You know what a singer is?
Someone with a hole in his heart as big as his ego.
When you need 20,000 people screaming your name in order to feel good about your day, you know you're a singer.
I am a singer and a songwriter
but I am also a father, four times over.
I am a friend to dogs.
I am a sworn enemy of the saccharine;
and a believer in grace over karma.
I talk too much when I'm drunk
and sometimes even when I'm not.
I am not drunk right now. These are not sunglasses,
these are protection.
But I must tell you.
I owe more than my spoiled lifestyle to rock music.
I owe my worldview.
Music was like an alarm clock for me as a teenager
and still keeps me from falling asleep
in the comfort of my freedom.
Rock music to me is rebel music. But rebelling against what?
In the Fifties it was sexual mores and double standards.
In the Sixties it was the Vietnam War
and racial and social inequality.
WHAT ARE WE REBELLING AGAINST NOW?
If I am honest I'm rebelling against my own indifference.
I am rebelling against the idea
that the world is the way the world is
and there's not a damned thing I can do about it.
So I'm trying to do some damned thing.
But fighting my indifference is my own problem.
What's your problem?
What's the hole in your heart? I needed the noise, the applause.
You needed the grades.
Why are you here in Harvard Square?
Why do you have to listen to me?
What have you given up to get here?
Is success your drug of choice
or are you driven by another curiosity?
Your potential. The potential of a given situation.
Is missing the moment unacceptable to you?
Is wasting inspiration a crime? It is for a musician.
If this is where we find our lives rhyme.
If this is our common ground,
well, then I can be inspired as well as humbled to be on this great campus.
Because that's where I come from. Music.
But I've seen the other side of music -- the Business.
I've seen success as a drug of choice.
I've seen great minds and prolific imaginations
disappear up their own ass,
strung out on their own self-importance.
I'M ONE OF THEM.
The misery of having it all your own way, the loneliness of sitting at a table where everyone works for you,
the emptiness of arriving at Aspen on a Gulfstream to stay in your winter palace. Eh, sorry, different speech ....
You know what I'm talking about --
you've got to keep asking yourself why are you doing this?
You've got to keep checking your motives.
Success for my group U2 has been a lot easier to conjure than, say ... relevance.
RELEVANCE ... in the world, in the culture.
And of course, failure is not such a bad thing ...
It's not a word that many of you know.
I'm sure it's what you fear the most. But from an artist's point of view,
failure is where you get your best material.
So fighting indifference versus making a difference.....
...Didn't John and Robert Kennedy come to Harvard?
Isn't equality a son of a bitch to follow through on?
Isn't "Love thy neighbour" in the global village so inconvenient?
GOD writes us these lines but we have to sing them ...
take them to the top of the charts,
but it's not what the radio is playing -- IS IT?
I KNOW.
But we've got to follow through on our ideals
or we betray something at the heart of who we are.
Outside these gates, and even within them,
the culture of idealism is under siege beset by materialism and narcissism
and all the other "isms" of indifference.
And their defense mechanism -- knowingness, the smirk, the joke. Worse still, it's a marketing tool.
They've got Martin Luther King selling phones now.
Have you seen that?
Civil Rights in America and Europe are bound to human rights in the rest of the world.
The right to live like a human.
But these thoughts are expensive -- they're going to cost us.
Are we ready to pay the price?
Is America still a great idea as well as a great country?
When I was a kid in Dublin, I watched in awe as America put a man on the moon; and I thought, WOW -- THIS IS MAD!
Nothing is impossible in America! America, they can do anything over there!
Nothing was impossible, only human nature,
and it followed because it was led.
Is that still true? Tell me it's true. It is true isn't it?
And if it isn't, you of all people can make it true again.
..."
Bono speaks on the culture of idealism and the art of the possible
Harvard University Commencement Speech
by Bono, lead singer of rock group U2
Thank you for that introduction. But I suppose I should say a few more words about who I am and what on earth I'm doing up here.
My name is Bono.
My name is Bono, and I'm a rock star.
Now, I tell you this, not as a boast but as a kind of confession. Because in my view the only thing worse than a rock star is a rock star with a conscience -- a celebrity with a cause ... OH, DEAR!
Worse yet, is a singer with a conscience --
a placard-waving, knee-jerking, fellow-travelling activist with a Lexus, and a swimming pool shaped like his own head.
I'M A SINGER.
You know what a singer is?
Someone with a hole in his heart as big as his ego.
When you need 20,000 people screaming your name in order to feel good about your day, you know you're a singer.
I am a singer and a songwriter
but I am also a father, four times over.
I am a friend to dogs.
I am a sworn enemy of the saccharine;
and a believer in grace over karma.
I talk too much when I'm drunk
and sometimes even when I'm not.
I am not drunk right now. These are not sunglasses,
these are protection.
But I must tell you.
I owe more than my spoiled lifestyle to rock music.
I owe my worldview.
Music was like an alarm clock for me as a teenager
and still keeps me from falling asleep
in the comfort of my freedom.
Rock music to me is rebel music. But rebelling against what?
In the Fifties it was sexual mores and double standards.
In the Sixties it was the Vietnam War
and racial and social inequality.
WHAT ARE WE REBELLING AGAINST NOW?
If I am honest I'm rebelling against my own indifference.
I am rebelling against the idea
that the world is the way the world is
and there's not a damned thing I can do about it.
So I'm trying to do some damned thing.
But fighting my indifference is my own problem.
What's your problem?
What's the hole in your heart? I needed the noise, the applause.
You needed the grades.
Why are you here in Harvard Square?
Why do you have to listen to me?
What have you given up to get here?
Is success your drug of choice
or are you driven by another curiosity?
Your potential. The potential of a given situation.
Is missing the moment unacceptable to you?
Is wasting inspiration a crime? It is for a musician.
If this is where we find our lives rhyme.
If this is our common ground,
well, then I can be inspired as well as humbled to be on this great campus.
Because that's where I come from. Music.
But I've seen the other side of music -- the Business.
I've seen success as a drug of choice.
I've seen great minds and prolific imaginations
disappear up their own ass,
strung out on their own self-importance.
I'M ONE OF THEM.
The misery of having it all your own way, the loneliness of sitting at a table where everyone works for you,
the emptiness of arriving at Aspen on a Gulfstream to stay in your winter palace. Eh, sorry, different speech ....
You know what I'm talking about --
you've got to keep asking yourself why are you doing this?
You've got to keep checking your motives.
Success for my group U2 has been a lot easier to conjure than, say ... relevance.
RELEVANCE ... in the world, in the culture.
And of course, failure is not such a bad thing ...
It's not a word that many of you know.
I'm sure it's what you fear the most. But from an artist's point of view,
failure is where you get your best material.
So fighting indifference versus making a difference.....
...Didn't John and Robert Kennedy come to Harvard?
Isn't equality a son of a bitch to follow through on?
Isn't "Love thy neighbour" in the global village so inconvenient?
GOD writes us these lines but we have to sing them ...
take them to the top of the charts,
but it's not what the radio is playing -- IS IT?
I KNOW.
But we've got to follow through on our ideals
or we betray something at the heart of who we are.
Outside these gates, and even within them,
the culture of idealism is under siege beset by materialism and narcissism
and all the other "isms" of indifference.
And their defense mechanism -- knowingness, the smirk, the joke. Worse still, it's a marketing tool.
They've got Martin Luther King selling phones now.
Have you seen that?
Civil Rights in America and Europe are bound to human rights in the rest of the world.
The right to live like a human.
But these thoughts are expensive -- they're going to cost us.
Are we ready to pay the price?
Is America still a great idea as well as a great country?
When I was a kid in Dublin, I watched in awe as America put a man on the moon; and I thought, WOW -- THIS IS MAD!
Nothing is impossible in America! America, they can do anything over there!
Nothing was impossible, only human nature,
and it followed because it was led.
Is that still true? Tell me it's true. It is true isn't it?
And if it isn't, you of all people can make it true again.
