From a new Rolling Stone interview with the talented, but sometimes insufferable Bono, the singer waxes on rightwing nationalisms percolating in Europe and the election of Der Trumpenfuhrer:
People’s innocence had died. And a generation that had grown up thinking that the human spirit had a natural evolution toward fairness and justice was learning this might not be the case. My attitude was, “OK, good. Now it is time we wake up and realize we can’t take any of this for granted.” Big primates have been around a lot longer than democracy, and this dude who shall not be named – he is just a new manifestation of that big primate. We got shook. Even in Europe, people have forgotten what fascism did to them. Whether it was fascism described as Stalin or Mao in the state communism, whatever you want to call it. It is forgotten.
We are actually going back to the way we used to be. The new normal is the old normal. That is terrifying. The demonizing of “the other” has returned.
