Learn English Bono What is your BIG idea with BIG subtitles
my name is Bono and I am a rock star
[Applause]
don’t get me too excited because I use
he’s four-letter words when I get
excited and I’m that guy but I just like
to say to the parents their children are
safe your country is safe the FCC have
taught me a lesson and the only the only
four-letter word I’m going to use today
is P the N and she come to think of it
bono as a four-letter words the whole
business of obscenity I don’t think
there’s anything certainly more unseemly
than the sight of a rock star in
academic robes it’s a bit like when
people get their put their King Charles
Spaniels in a little tart and sweats and
hats it’s sort of it’s not natural and
it doesn’t make the dog any smarter No
it’s true we weren’t here before with
you two and I would like to thank them
for giving me a great life as well as
you I got a great rock and roll band
that normally stand at the back when I’m
talking to thousands of people in a
football stadium and they were here with
me I think it’s seven years ago actually
then I was some other territorial
problems I I I was wearing a Mirabal
suit at the time and I emerged from a
40-foot high revolving lemon it was a
sort of cross between a spaceship a
disco and actually just a plastic fruit
I think I guess it was at that point
when your trustees decided to give me
their highest honor Doctor of Laws Wow I
know it’s an honor it really is an honor
but are you sure doctor of law I mean
all I can think of as the laws I’ve
broken yes
laws of nature laws of physics laws of
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and on
a memorable night in this late 70s I
think it was Newton’s law of motion
sickness but no it’s true my resume
reads like a rap sheet I have to come
clean I’ve broken a lot of laws and the
ones I haven’t I’ve certainly thought
about I have sinned in thought word and
deed and God forgive me actually God
forgave me but why would you I’m here
getting a doctorate getting respectable
getting in the good graces of the powers
that be I hope it sends you students a
powerful message crime does pay
so I humbly accept the honor keeping in
mind the words of a British playwright
John Morrison where it was no brilliance
is needed in the law nothing but common
sense and relatively clean fingernails
well at best I’ve got one of the two of
those but no I never went to college
I’ve slept in some strange places but
the library wasn’t one of them
I studied rock and roll and I grew up in
Dublin in the 70s music was an alarm
bell for me and woke me up to the world
I was 17 when I first saw The Clash and
it just sounded like revolution The
Clash were like this is a public service
announcement with guitars I was the kid
in the crowds who took it at face value
later I learned that a lot of the rebels
were in it for the t-shirt they’d wear
the boots but they wouldn’t March
they’d smashed bottles on their heads
but they wouldn’t go to something more
painful like a town hall meeting by the
way I felt like that myself until
recently I didn’t expect change to come
so slow so agonizingly slow I didn’t
realize that the biggest obstacle to
political and social progress was wasn’t
the Freemasons or the establishment or
the Bootheel of whatever you consider
the man to be it was something much more
subtle as the Provost just referred to a
combination of our own indifference and
the kafka esque labyrinth of nose you
encounter as people vanish down the
corridors of bureaucracy so that for
better were worse that was my education
I came away with a clearer sense of the
difference music could make in my own
life and other people’s lives if I did
my job right which if you’re a singer in
a rock band of means avoiding the
obvious pitfalls like say a mullet
hairdo
if anyone here doesn’t know what a
mullet is by the way your education is
certainly not complete I’d ask for your
money back for a lead singer like me a
mullet is I would suggest arguably more
dangerous than a drug problem yes I had
a mullet in the 80s now this is the
point where the members of the faculty
starts smiling uncomfortably in thinking
maybe they should have offered me the
honors the honorary bachelor’s degree
said of the full bond given he should
have been the bachelors it’s talking
about mullets and stuff and if they’re
asking one on earth I’m doing here I
think it’s a fair question what am I
doing here
and more to the point what are you doing
here because if you don’t mind me saying
so this is a strange ending to an Ivy
League education four years in these
historic halls thinking great thoughts
and now you’re sitting in a stadium
better suited for football listening to
an Irish rock star give a speech that is
so far mostly about himself
what are you doing here actually I saw
something in the paper last week about
Kermit the Frog giving a commencement
address somewhere one of the students
was complaining I worked my ass off for
four years to be addressed by a sock you
have worked your ass off for this for
four years you’ve been buying trading
and selling everything you’ve got in
this marketplace of ideas the
intellectual hustle your pockets are
full even your your parents are empty
and now you got to figure out what to
spend it on
well the going rate for change is not
cheap big ideas are expensive the
university has had its share of big
ideas Benjamin Franklin had a few so did
justice Brennan and in my opinion so
does Judith’s Roden what a gorgeous girl
they have all know they all knew that if
you’re gonna be good at your word if
you’re gonna live up to your ideals and
your education it’s gonna cost you
so my question I suppose is what’s the
big idea what’s your big idea what are
you willing to spend your moral capital
your intellectual capital your cash your
sweat equity in pursuing outside of the
walls of the University of Pennsylvania
there’s a really great truly great Irish
poet his name is Brendan kennelly and he
has this epic poem it’s called the book
of judas and there’s a line in that poem
that never leaves my mind it says if you
want to serve the aged betray it what
does that mean to betray the aged
well to me betraying the H means
exposing its conceits its foibles it’s
phony moral certitude it means telling
the secrets of the age and facing harsha
truths every age has its massive moral
blind spots we might not see them but
our children will slavery was one of
them and the people who best served that
age were the ones who called it as it
was which was ungodly and inhuman Ben
Franklin called it when he became
president of the Pennsylvania abolition
Society segregation there was another
one America sees this now but it took a
civil rights movement to betray their
age and 50 years ago the US Supreme
Court betrayed the age May 17 1954 it
says here Brown versus Board of
Education came down and put the lie to
the idea that separate can ever really
be equal amen to that
fast forward 50 years may 17th 2004 what
are the ideas right now worth betraying
what are the lies we tell ourselves now
what are the blind spots of our age
what’s worth spending your post pen
lives trying to do or undo it might be
something simple it might be something
as simple as our deep down refusal to
believe that every human life has equal
worth could that be it could that be it
each of you will probably have your own
answer but for me that is it and for me
the proving ground has been Africa
Africa makes a mockery of what we say is
what I say about equality it questions
our piety zand our commitments because
there’s no way to look at what’s
happening over there and its effect on
all of us and conclude that we actually
consider Africans as our equal before
God there is no chance
an amazing event happens here in
Philadelphia in 1985 Live Aid at whole
we are the world phenomen the concert
that happened here
well after that concert I went to
Ethiopia with my wife Ali we were there
for a month and an extraordinary thing
happened to me
we used to wake up in the morning and
the lift the mist would be lifting we’d
see thousands and thousands of people
who’ve been walking all night and to our
food station where we were working and
one man I was standing outside talking
to the translatory this beautiful boy
and he was saying to me in America I
guess it was he saying I can’t
understand what he’s saying and this
nurse who spoke English and America to
me he’s saying will you take his son
he’s saying please take his son he he
would be a great son for you and I I was
looking puzzled and he said you must
take my son because if you don’t take my
son my son will surely die if you take
him he will go go back to where he is
and get an education probably like the
ones we’re talking about today and and
of course I said I had to say no that
was the rules there and I walked away
from that man and I have never really
walked away from it but I think about
that that boy and that man and that’s
when I started this journey that’s
brought me here into this stadium
because at that moment I became the
worst scourge on God’s green earth a
rock star with a cause except it isn’t
the cause 7,000 Africans dying every day
of preventable treatable disease like
AIDS that’s not a cause that’s an
emergency and when the disease gets out
of control we
most of the population live on less than
a dollar a day that’s not a cause that’s
an emergency
and when resentment builds because of
unfair trade rules and the burden of
unfair debts that our debts by the way
that keep Africans poor that’s not a
cause that’s an emergency
so we are the world Live Aid start meet
off you know it was an extraordinary
thing and really that event was about
charity but 20 years on I’m not that
interested in charity I’m interested in
justice there’s a difference Africa
needs justice as much as it needs
charity
equality for Africa is a big idea it’s a
big expensive idea see that the Wharton
graduates now getting out the math on
the back of the programs numbers are
intimidating aren’t they but not to you
but the scale the scale of the suffering
and the scope of the commitment they
often Nomis into a kind of indifference
wishing for the end to AIDS and extreme
poverty in Africa is like wishing that
gravity didn’t make things so damn heavy
we can wish it but what the hell can we
do about it
well more than we think we can’t fix
every problem corruption natural
calamities are part of the picture here
but the ones we can we must the debt
burden as I say unfair trade as I say
sharing our knowledge the intellectual
copyright for life-saving drugs in a
crisis we can do that and because we can
we must because we can we must amen
sorry this is the straight truth the
righteous truth it’s not a theory it’s a
fact the fact is a dis generation yours
mine generation that can look at the
poverty we’re the first generation that
could look at poverty and disease look
across the ocean to Africa and say with
a straight face we can be the first to
end the sort of stupid extreme poverty
we’re in a world of Plenty a child can
die for lack of food in its belly we can
be the first generation it might take a
while but we can be that generation that
says no to stupid poverty
[Music]
it’s a fact it’s a fact there
economists confirm it it’s an expensive
fact but cheaper than say the Marshall
Plan that saved Europe from communism
and fascism and cheaper I would argue
than fighting wave after wave of
terrorism’s new recruits it that’s the
Economics Department over there very
good it’s a fact so why aren’t we
pumping our fists in the air and
cheering about it well probably because
when we admit we can do something about
it we’ve got to do something about it
for the first time in history we have
the know-how we have the cash we have
the life-saving drugs but do we have the
will yesterday here in Philadelphia at
the Liberty Bell I met a lot of
Americans who do have the will from
Archer are you here there’s the three
million of them over there from arch
religious conservatives to young secular
radicals I just have got an incredible
overpowering sense that this was
possible yesterday we were calling it
the one campaign to put an end to aids
and extreme poverty in Africa they
believe we can do it
so do I I really really do believe it
and I just want you to know I think it’s
this is obvious but I’m not really going
in for the warm fuzzy feeling thing I’m
not a hippie I do not have flowers in my
hair I come from punk rock all right
The Clash war army boots not
Birkenstocks all right I believe America
can do this I believe that this
generation can do this in fact I want to
hear an argument about why we shouldn’t
I know idealism is not playing on the
radio right now you don’t see it on TV
irony is on heavy rotation the
knowingness the smirk the tired joke
I’ve tried them all out but I’ll tell
you this outside this campus and even
inside it
idealism is under siege beset by
materialism narcissism and all the other
isms of indifference pagas and Chagas
and ragas and that is and graduate ISM
jism is a mother Oh where’s John Lennon
when you need him well I don’t want to
make you cop to idealism not in front of
your parents or your younger siblings
but what about Americanism will you come
to that at least it’s not everywhere in
fashion these days Americanism not very
big in Europe truth be told no less on
Ivy League college campuses but it all
depends on your definition of
Americanism me I’m in love with this
country called America
I’m a huge fan
I’m a huge fan of America I’m like one
of those annoying fans you know the ones
that read the the CD notes and follow
you into bathrooms and ask you all kinds
of annoying questions about why you
didn’t live up to that exam I’m that
kind of fan and I’ve read the
Declaration of Independence and I’ve
read the Constitution of the United
States and they are some liner notes to
it and as I said yesterday I made my
pilgrim dependents halt and I love
America because America is not just a
country it’s an idea you see my country
Ireland is a great country but it’s not
an idea America is an idea but it’s an
idea that brings with it some baggage
like power brings prompt responsibility
it’s an idea that brings with the
Equality but equality even though it’s
the highest calling is the hardest to
reach the idea that anything is possible
that’s one of the reasons I’m a fan of
America it’s like hey look there’s the
moon up there let’s let’s you know let’s
take a walk on it bring back a piece of
it that’s the kind of America that I’m a
fan of and in 1971 actually no in 1771
not great for glam-rock that year but
your founder mr. Franklin spent three
months in Ireland and Scotland to look
at the relationship they had with
England and see whether they this could
be a model for America whether America
should follow their example and remain a
part of the British Empire Franklin was
deeply deeply distressed by what he saw
in Ireland he saw how England had put a
stranglehold on Irish trade how absentee
English landlords exploited Irish tenant
farmers and how those farmers in
Franklin’s words lived in wretched
hovels of mud and straw were clothed in
rags and subsisted chiefly on potatoes
not exactly
the American dream so instead of Ireland
becoming a model for America America
became a model for Ireland in our own
struggle for independence and when the
potatoes ran out millions of Irish men
women and children packed their bags got
on a boat and showed up right here and
we’re still doing it we’re not even
starving anymore loads of potatoes in
fact if there’s any Irish out there
break out breaking news from Dublin the
potato famine is over you can come home
now sorry
but why are we still showing up because
we love the idea of America we love the
crackle in the hustle we love the spirit
that gives a finger to fate the spirit
that says there’s no hurdle we can’t
clear and no problem we can’t fix
oh here’s here comes the Brits only
joking
yeah no problem we can’t fix so what’s
the problem that we want to apply all
this energy and intellect to every era
has its defining struggle and the fate
of Africa is one of ours it’s not the
only one but in the history books
it’s easily gonna make the top five what
we did or what we did not do it’s a
proving ground as I said earlier for the
idea of equality but whether it’s this
or something else I hope you’ll pick a
fight and get in it get your boots dirty
get rough steal your courage with a
final drink there at Smokey Joe’s one
last primal scream and go sing the
melody line you hear in your own head
remember you don’t owe anybody any
explanations you don’t owe your parents
any explanations you don’t owe your
professors any explanations you know I
used to think that the future was solid
or fixed or something like you inherited
like an old building that you move into
and the previous generation moves out or
gets chased out but it’s not the future
is not fixed it’s fluid you can build
your own building or Hut or condo
whatever this is the metaphor part of
the speech but my point is that the
world is more malleable than you think
and it’s waiting for you to hammer it
into shape now if I were a folk singer I
would immediately launch into if I had a
hammer right now get you all singing and
swaying but as I say I come from punk
rock so I’d rather have the bloody
hammer right here in my fist
that’s what this degree of yours is a
blunt instrument so go forth and build
something with it and remember what John
Adams said about Ben Franklin he does
not hesitate at our boldest measures but
rather seems to think us to irresolute
well this is the time for bold measures
and this is the country and you are the
generation thank you
[Applause]