U2 and the power of creative dissent

So my writing about All Along The Watchtower is taking me down Bonoville. Prepare yourselves for some fangirling.

I don't remember when I fell in love with U2. All I know is that by the time I hooked up with the father of my children, I already was a rabid fan of the quartet.

The 1980s were not just about corporate greed and yuppies. The height of the war of independence was happening in Ireland with bombings everywhere by the IRA. In Spain ETA was not to be left behind. Central America was covered in the blood of the Iran-Contra war. And in Puerto Rico we had the FALN.

I came to take as "normal" a bombing or two of federal buildings or army equipment at least every 3 months. And there was the molotov coktailing of the paramilitary forces of the island whenever there was a political demonstration. By the time I had made the decision to come to the United States, I ironically made it because I felt that being in the belly of the beast would spare me of the violence and craziness. I really wanted to be as far away of all things political as possible.

Of course, if you are a fan of U2, that's absolutely impossible.

I did a bit of research to refresh my memory about "Where the streets have no name". At some point I had a U2 bio book and I could have sweared Bono said that when he went to either El Salvador or Nicaragua he did indeed find "a place where the streets have no name". Yet in the official Wikipedia entry, the explanation given for this song is one about Belfast:

"Where the Streets Have No Name is more like the U2 of old than any of the other songs on the LP, because it’s a sketch - I was just trying to sketch a location, maybe a spiritual location, maybe a romantic location.

I was trying to sketch a feeling. I often feel very claustrophobic in a city, a feeling of wanting to break out of that city and a feeling of wanting to go somewhere where the values of the city and the values of our society don’t hold you down.

An interesting story that someone told me once is that in Belfast, by what street someone lives on you can tell not only their religion but tell how much money they’re making - literally by which side of the road they live on, because the further up the hill the more expensive the houses become. You can almost tell what the people are earning by the name of the street they live on and what side of that street they live on. That said something to me, and so I started writing about a place where the streets have no name.

In Puerto Rico we still had one of two arrabales at the time. They were the vestiges of shantytowns that littered our urban landscape and which had started to disappear into public housing. So for a lot of people in the island that song was about rising above the violence of poverty and despair.

Even though I had decided I wanted a life instead of activism back in the 1980s and 1990s, U2 was one of the groups that kept me politically grounded. My political commitment was off-the-radar maybe even quiet; yet it was all grounded in finding expressions of creative dissent. And U2 inspired me into creative actions through teaching and my academic work.

Then came 9/11/01.

I honestly didn't expect the US to become in my lifetime the paramilitary and repressive country it has turned into. But it's not just politically. The technology sector is the best bell-weather of repressive networking of civilians that is being promoted and financed by "the powers that be". Not because they want to ensure our security. The will to power and domination is too much of a human instinct and human are more prone to lusting for the violence of domination than striving for the temperance that comes with humility and charity.

In all their inconsistencies (remember Negativeland?), these 4 Irish guys have consistently shown the way to redemption through the creative process. Bono has even made great strides in fighting world poverty. With the ONE campaign, he's making not just attractive giving but by making sexy the idea of creating more balanced economies that are actually grounded in transnational cooperation while respecting self-sufficiency.

I'll always love them for that.

What I am not that sure is about the Pet Shop Boys.

What possessed them to mash up "Where the streets have no name" with "Can't take my eyes off you"?

Sheesh.