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i dunno, i haven't stopped choking on the "capitalism" comment yet :D
 
Wow! I didn't expect Bono to say that.

The Irish singer and co-founder of ONE, a campaigning group that fights poverty and disease in Africa, said it had been “a humbling thing for me” to realize the importance of capitalism and entrepreneurialism in philanthropy, particularly as someone who “got into this as a righteous anger activist with all the cliches.”

“Job creators and innovators are just the key, and aid is just a bridge,” he told an audience of 200 leading technology entrepreneurs and investors at the F.ounders tech conference in Dublin. “We see it as startup money, investment in new countries. A humbling thing was to learn the role of commerce.”
The singer, who dropped by the F.ounders conference on Friday in between working on songs for U2′s next album, said he’d had other, similarly tough realizations: that there are “enormously useful,” people on the left and right. “You just have to reach them.”

Mudfeld would be angry! :lol:
 
i don't know about Mudfeld, but, really, i'm truly amazed at that capitalism comment... he could have just kept it to "entrepreneurialism" - capitalism has all kinds of controversial connotations, it is a cause of social inequality and exploitation, and many of the problems that people such as he are supposedly trying to overcome... very weird comment...
 
Wow! I didn't expect Bono to say that.



Mudfeld would be angry! :lol:

He's said plenty similar things plenty of times. I recall an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in 2008 w/Thomas Friedman, Bono and Al Gore. Bono was asked something to the effect of there being a tension between capitalism and what he was trying to accomplish regarding disease, poverty, etc and he was very clear with his "NO" answer.

He said something to the effect of "I've long since gotten over this whole idea of artists good, businessmen bad, I got over that when I was about 20, ok?"

And as that linked interview from Toronto in 1981 makes clear, U2, and Bono especially, always had a different mind set when it came to those things.

That different mind set is a big part of why they're still around and successful, I'd say.
 
Which could be interpreted as:

Their desire to make as much money as possible is a big part of why they're still around and successful.

If that's how you want to interpret it, ok.

I don't see it that way in the least bit. If they were in this for money, they could've retired and lived for 3 or 4 lifetimes after 1987.

Sure, they'll take the money these days, but it's not one of the main motivations keeping them in the game. I highly doubt anyone besides their accountants notices the extra cash from what they do now.

Look at what they talk about in 1981- the whole "down with the system" mindset of many other bands had one problem: it completely stopped speaking to people after they turned about 22 at the latest. It also failed to get anything productive done when it came to actually helping people. Bono's way has been far more productive.

I still believe there is plenty of room for righteous anger and a place for sloganeering, etc, and there are, of course, many, many flaws with capitalism, especially as it's intertwined w/politics, especially in the US.

Reforms can be made, but does a better economic system exist? Not that I've seen anywhere.

U2 would've been a loud, screaming, niche protest band like so many others if it wasn't for their different way of thinking.
 
Reforms can be made, but does a better economic system exist? Not that I've seen anywhere.

Well there's the one where the people themselves control the means of production ... but let's not turn this into too much of a political discussion, that's for FYM. :wink:
 
Oh come on, missed chance for including Stop(the poverty) on the album. :sad: And what about "Lots of Hits".


But seriously. I'm very, very cautiously excited. It's good we hear from two different sources that they're actually doing something! Better than just seeing them party their way through France. The album may not come out soon, but at least they're working on it!
 
Wait wait... I'm sorry... there are people who are surprised that anyone in U2 is in favor of capitalism?

well when i was growing up and getting into U2 in the mid-80s, they were pretty much portrayed/perceived as a band with a cause, into social justice etc. etc., more than just a band, they had "meaning", and were an antidote to shallow hair metal and bad 80s pop at the time... never imagined them preaching capitalism really, not back then anyway... so i kind of find it hard to reconcile the capitalism with the social stuff, and, dare i say, it the "Jesus" stuff (not that i'm religious or anything myself)
 
I don't think that capitalism and social justice are at all mutually exclusive. Totally laissez-faire capitalism, sure, but I think it's pretty clear that U2 aren't advocating that.
 
i dunno, i always think of capitalism as in political theory capitalism, with a capital C lol!

(more specifically, Wallerstein's theory with the periphery and core, his "octopus" theory, the imbalanced exploitative way capitalism has to function... that's what always comes to my mind when i think of capitalism...)

maybe that's not what B-man meant, which is why i reckon he could've chosen his words more wisely, "capitalism" can conjure up all kinds of evil thoughts LOL
 
well when i was growing up and getting into U2 in the mid-80s, they were pretty much portrayed/perceived as a band with a cause, into social justice etc. etc., more than just a band, they had "meaning", and were an antidote to shallow hair metal and bad 80s pop at the time... never imagined them preaching capitalism really, not back then anyway... so i kind of find it hard to reconcile the capitalism with the social stuff, and, dare i say, it the "Jesus" stuff (not that i'm religious or anything myself)

Thanks for putting it into words.
 
well when i was growing up and getting into U2 in the mid-80s, they were pretty much portrayed/perceived as a band with a cause, into social justice etc. etc., more than just a band, they had "meaning", and were an antidote to shallow hair metal and bad 80s pop at the time... never imagined them preaching capitalism really, not back then anyway... so i kind of find it hard to reconcile the capitalism with the social stuff, and, dare i say, it the "Jesus" stuff (not that i'm religious or anything myself)
I don't think that capitalism and social justice are at all mutually exclusive. Totally laissez-faire capitalism, sure, but I think it's pretty clear that U2 aren't advocating that.

I tend to agree with digitize here... not the laissez-faire, or vulture, or crony capitalism crap.

but i can understand the way you feel mama cass!

There is a term which i was also going to use "capitalism with a human face" but i went to look it up as to its origins which I thought were related to Franklin D Roosevelt's era. Acording to Wiki it's Rhine capitalism: associtated w France, Spain, and Northern Europian Nations.

It also seems I have yet to (evetually) read surce material that FDR wanted to do even more for more Americans than he already did before he unfortunately died.

And while not excusing Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt's Imperialistic side he said something damn amazing esp for a Republican (and i've on rare occasion's voted for (2) Liberal Republicans in my lifetime so far- way before the rise of the Tea Party and even more uber-corporatists)...

He spoke about the American worker getting a living wage: able to have deccent work, healthcare, education, food, house/housing, vacation etc :ohmy: I only heard about this in the past several years!

He was i think evetualy pushed out of the Republican Party and he ran in The Progressive Party.

Back to FDR... he, of course, eventually was called a "class traitor" ... At one of his speeches at the Democratic Convention... referring to those kind of people/their reactions.. "I welcome their hatred!"
 
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