Ok children, enough for the fooling around about Bono's destiny ambitions. Let's go back to the original post.
It is a very interesting observation to see Bono as a fatalist. It goes beyond those albums. In one of the earliest interviews before Boy, Bono told Rolling Stone that U2 had a certain chemisty that made them destined to become like the Stones, or the Who or the Beatles (not sure if I got this exactly right).
The song One was a product of a spontaneous jamming session when band tension was at an all-time high - and they got this song together and it became one of their greatest ever and teh heart of Achtung Baby. Destiny perhaps?
U2 won a band contest in their beginnings by playing two Ramones songs and passing it off as their own. Joey Ramone died while listening to a U2 song. Fate perhaps?
The band (except for odd-man-out Clayton) are all Christians. And the Christian belief has a lot of fate and destiny in it, in the form of fulfilled prophecies. There is the book of Isiah in the Old Testament that foretells the coming of Jesus. Then Jesus arrives in the New Testament. Then Jesus predicts his third coming as the end of the world. Also, he preaches that our ultimate destiny is to be back to the Kingdom.
While I never thought of it before, now that you brought it out, it gave me something to think about. And I have come to the realization that Bono is indeed a fatalist. Thank you so much for your enlightening observation. I really agree with you on this one.
Cheers,
J