I liked Joshua Tree. I was not much of a fan of the tone of the record as I was/am proud to be an American.
Yet...
I get the tone of Joshua Tree. We tend to be a bit overarching in our behavior. Kinda like European countries were, and still aspire to be. Not all of them, mostly the major players ( I do not see Greece or Ireland trying to influence events in South Asia with money and guns, for example), but we act no differently than the Major European powers.
Of course, if you think we do then you are just as guilty of the myopia you accuse us of suffering from.
Of course, with the choices we had for president (the country would have lost either way), I can understand why other countries see us as a bit foolish and why foreign artists may feel the need to chide us. I do not look at our choices this time around and feel pride, I feel like we are being played and very few people know they are merely pieces in a game. Maybe we need outsiders to point out that we are being childish in our decisions and how we choose to support our political machines. But that could be said, with very little fear of being wrong, about any country. Humans, as a rule, tend to think as a flock and will choose what others choose so they don't feel left out.
That being said, I don't really like the political stance of many of the artists I listen to, but I sure like their music and I appreciate them using their medium to voice their opinion. If I am tired of listening to the rants of Rage Against the Machine I change what I am listening to. Simple.
Joshue Tree is what got me to think about my country from more than a "Rah-Rah!" attitude. Many view me as being conservative, even though I try to be even minded and listen to all sides, (My choices do not satisfy either side, really), but Joshua Tree was my seminal event that made me examine how I politically and sociologically viewed things. I am ,still, unabashedly proud of being a citizen of the US, but I am also the father who taught his children to wade through the crap from the left and right, to question as opposed to accept, and to formulate their own opinions no matter how unpopular they may be. Joshua Tree did that.
I began to think U2 had lost it when they released Zooropa as they started to look and sound like every other top 40 band out there. Then they just kept turning away from what made them great. IMO.
I do not have issues with anyone using their fame to further their agenda, be it Bono or Nugent. I just ask that they respect, or just be willing to listen with an open mind, opinions that may not jibe with their own.
Not a whole lot of that going on today in this here US of A- that is how we get Trump and HRC on a presidential ballot. Maybe we need more of that, and if Bono can open some eyes then more power to him.
