Quick transcription of the audio bit. (I'm really bored right now.)
Anthony DeCurtis: In terms of your own life and the future, I mean if you had to do one thing or the other, if you had to, you know, if you had to give up being in a band – being in your band, being in U2, or giving up the work you’re doing for poverty, like, which one would go?
Bono: That’s uh, uh, uh. I can’t live without music. I don’t think I can physically live without music, because it’s the thing that allows me to, to feel normal. It’s like asking a, uh, um, a psychotic person, uh to do without their lithium <both laugh> However, there are people out there whose lives are dependent, um, on people like me, who have access to the agents of change, and I would have to take a very, very big deep breath before I gave up that access. What I’m hoping is that the social movement that is growing around our issues will be so strong that in the event of somebody like me not being around, that they won’t notice. Because social movements in the end carry the bay. Not rock stars. And that’s always been the way, I mean a rock star on any level, uh, individuals, social movements always carry the bay and it – that is growing now. In our, on our ONE Campaign, in the last week, it’s up to 1300 campuses have signed on. There is, I mean, multi-millions of actions going on online as we speak now, people talking to each other, getting busy. All I think, as well as having a heart for the most vulnerable, poorest people in the world, I think what’s going on, is they are redefining their country, through the prism of the fight against extreme poverty. But I think what’s actually going on, is they want a different version of America than their fathers and their mothers, and I think, the thing I’m really – which I wasn’t planning to talk about – there is an, I think the issues of extreme poverty, ending something like malaria, which kills thousands of children every day, die of a mosquito bite. I mean it’s just maddening; it’s so not complicated to fix this problem. There are, you know, AIDS is a complicated problem to fix. But I think through, you know, I think issues like this afford a chance to America to re-describe itself to the world. Yes. But issues like this also afford America a chance to re-describe itself to its citizens. It’s like, I feel that’s going on, I feel people are very nauseous at the moment about being perceived as the enemy. Imagine that? Imagine the country that liberated Europe – not only liberated Europe but rebuilt Europe – with the Marshall Plan, the country of Omaha Beach, the heroism that people who gave their lives for, you know, people like my dad and people who lived in Europe, you know, farmers, and teachers, and doctors – this is the United States of America! And, and, by the way, pertaining to the presidential election – whoever fixes that problem, gets elected. People say, ‘Oh, it’s all about the economy’ – it’s not. This is the first time it’s not about the economy, stupid. It’s not about the economy, stupid. It’s about – turn that around. We’re the United States of America, and we do not like being seen as the enemy. You know, after Abu Ghraib, people I know, people I know were making – you know, reasonable, rational, educated people, were saying the most despicable things about America. Just saying, ‘What’s the difference here between, you know, this is the Roman Empire, you know, this is, this is like…’ and it’s just, wow! Now, on the campuses, leaders of Rolling Stone, erm, working mothers want their country back! And I think it’s gonna be – I think it’s a wave – and I think the next generation are just gonna roll right over us, and, I don’t know quite how it’s gonna work out, but there is a new kind of hard-headed idealism out there, which is not about ‘let’s hold hands’ and, you know, wish away the world’s problems. People are ready to get busy, get active, change the world, one brick at a time, one dormitory at a time, one, you know – and that’s a reason to get out of bed, for me.