We Are Of Noise—By PJ

Fulbright Bono, watercolor sketch by Kelly Eddington, 2022.

The Fulbright Prize for International Understanding is by no means Sir Bono’s first award—he’s some sort of British knight and is also in charge of all the arts and letters in France—but I think the advance notice for the livestream of Thursday night’s ceremony, coupled with our starvation for U2 content, turned this event into a fandom party. Hence, the staff at Achtoon Tower declared it worthy of a short reflection. (But if you don’t want to read, just look at that picture Kelly painted!)—PJ

We are of Noise, and the Holy Land of Noise

PJ DeGenaro

Sorry about the title. My other option was “Humanity’s Rock Star,” but in the verbal battle of Yeats vs. Gates, there can be only one winner.

Fam, we’ve heard enough malarkey about Bono over the years to make even the most fanatic heart falter. I won’t “pay yer tax” here; you know what I’m talking about. We’ve also heard a lot of toe-curling, obsequious praise. So let’s skip the hour of intros, call-outs, musical tributes and video montages and go directly to the honest, emotional words of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General of the World Trade Organization and former Finance Minister for Nigeria: 

“[I have] worked with, laughed with, argued with, brainstormed with and found solutions with [Bono] for almost 20 years. Bono is my brother, through good and bad […] my brother forever, and my friend.”

That works for me.

Bono finally walked onto the stage, hitching up his trousers. A little pink in the face, making jokes at his own expense, and shuffling papers that probably contained only a few key words to keep him on track. 

“I come from noise,” he declared, “and the intent to find some signal in that noise. I come from informality, from occasional dishevelment. I come from rock ’n ’roll.”

Once the applause died down, Bono called rock ’n’ roll the sound of liberation, noting that some Americans prefer the word freedom, and adding, “I think we’re all agreed that [freedom] isn’t just under siege in Ukraine, now is it?” 

Fans from outside the U.S. might have been miffed that Bono’s main topic for his Fulbright acceptance speech was America. It’s an American award, named for a U.S. Senator, but I do feel your pain. America is frequently the overgrown, under-bright little brother of the world, sometimes trying to force democracy on others at gunpoint while not living up to its own ideals at home.

And for all his poetry, Bono wasn’t fucking around. “On January 6 in this city,” he said, “I sensed a mood of grief […] a death of a generation’s innocence. I was okay with that.”

“Freedom is under attack from the outside, but also from the inside,” he said. Then, after giving the entire room his famous Blue Glare of Death: “YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.” 

I hope that made Representative Jamie Raskin laugh, and Representative Steve Scalise soil himself.

(Sorry, Bono. Like my country, I am still “caught in the act of becoming.”)

An effortlessly articulate and poetic man, Bono was at his most eloquent when he described the actual work of maintaining democracy, which he rightfully conflates with freedom: 

“Today I was thinking about a kind of ‘sedated stamina.’ That’s what won the day in Ireland. But who am I telling? Some of you in this room have lived this kind of work every day. You might call it the daily toil of democracy. This is a room full of toilers. And you know what I’m talking about: the dog-eared documents, the conference tables with the plates of stale sandwiches, the deli trays with the curled-up cheese, the headaches from the fluorescent lights, the late nights missing your family at home—that’s the real heroism. That’s what peace looks like.”

America, he mused, is an unfinished song. Then he gave us our marching orders: “Go tell the bullies in the pulpit the American song has never been a solo. It’s symphonic.”

The song he chose to close out the evening for us Americans—though we’ve yet to earn it—was “Redemption Song,” by Bob Marley. Just one verse, unaccompanied, and delivered with enough power to render everything that preceded it insignificant.

Then he fled the stage, holding his jacket closed with one hand. As he does.

You can watch Bono’s speech here, along with the entire Fulbright Prize presentation.