As “Time Person of the Year,” Bono is no stranger to fame on an international stage. Catapulted into success with his relentless commitment to the demise of deadly diseases and poverty, this rock star activist has been unwavering in his support to bring aid to the sick and dying. In “This Generation’s Moon Shot,” Bono attempts to persuade Americans to rise to the awesome challenge of eradicating disease and poverty. With a tone of idealistic optimism and appeals to the American spirit, Bono seeks to spur his audience into action.
Like the nature of the author himself, the essay displays a sense of optimism towards this seemingly impossible goal of eliminating worldwide disease and poverty. Bono’s word choice serves an important purpose in helping him achieve his goal. The optimistic tone, the “we-can-do-this” attitude helps drive back the skeptics who may distract from a focus on stamping out worldwide disease and poverty. He brushes aside the potential naysayer who may cause his audience to question the possibility of eradicating disease and second-guess themselves, a masterful stroke achieved by planting the words “infinite possibility” inside the minds of his readers. The fight against disease, Bono proclaims, is no longer driven by a flight of humanitarian fancy, but by “hard science,” the unyielding force that provides indisputable proof of a future cure. He assures Americans that they are still capable of making a difference in the world—that they will do “the things everyone says can’t be done.” In a sense, he is exploiting their idealistic spirit by tantalizing Americans with the prospect of success, appealing to the insatiable American impulse to achieve “a goal out there worthy of [a] generation.” By giving his audience this boost of confidence, he makes “Mission Impossible” appear less impossible in their eyes. Furthermore, Bono cites the journey to the moon as a way of reminding his readers of a glorious day when Man defied all odds. Using the juxtaposition of the journey to the moon and the total elimination of deadly diseases, Bono helps the reader connect the feeling of the triumph of a moon landing to "the defeat of humanity's oldest foe: disease." In drawing this analogy, Bono reveals his tactic of subtly hinting to Americans that once they have a goal in mind, nothing can prevent them from fulfilling it. This unspoken message drips with optimism and in turn helps to nudge the emboldened reader closer to action.
After convincing the American people that there is indeed light at the end of the tunnel, Bono utilizes various appeals in the second half of the essay to strike a resounding chord in the American psyche. He begins by noting widespread indifference as the current state of mind for most Americans, despite the thousands of deaths that occur every day from infectious diseases. He allows this guilt to fester a bit by mentioning, “behind each of these statistics is someone’s daughter, someone’s son, a mother, a father, a sister, or a brother.” He implies to the audience that no one is safe from disease when entire families face death in a matter of months. This pitiful image, brought to center stage, gives readers feelings of remorse and a desire to redeem themselves, to somehow find a way to repent for indifference. Bono manipulates cold and impersonal facts into real, tangible images to which all people can relate and respond. The result is no longer a numerical statistic that remains in the reader’s mind, but the thought of a suffering fellow human being that haunts the consciousness of the person who reads the essay. Bono endeavors to imbue the audience with sympathy, knowing that it is a matter of time before the overwhelming impulse to help kicks in. This strategy is particularly effective because of a preexisting bias already present in Bono’s main audience—Bono knows that the Americans reading his essay are naturally disposed towards the pursuit of lofty goals, and that he, armed with this notable proposal, can remind Americans of their desire “to renew [their] sense of adventure and purpose.” Recognizing this common identity among his readers gives Bono more ways to convey the message in his essay. Taking advantage by appealing to the American values of duty and responsibility to the helpless and downtrodden, he issues a challenge to the American people to reject the idea that a mere “accident of longitude and latitude determines whether a child lives or dies.” He wants his readers to be angry at the inequity of it all, to be so indignant towards the injustice of the world that they will transform apathy into action. Instead of an earnest entreaty like the earlier part of the essay, Bono instead goads his readers to defend the very values they hold dear. He asks a series of questions to bring about a frank self-evaluation: “Who are we? What are our values? Do we have any at all?” The uncertainty in each of these questions is intentional, for Bono does this to make the American people anxious to prove themselves in the eyes of the world, to show themselves in a positive light. The audience now has a much more personal stake in fighting worldwide disease, and thus Bono ensures that they are more inclined to overcome their initial indifference. Finally, Bono discusses the higher consequences of taking part in the war against disease, appealing to the desire of each ordinary individual to leave behind an extraordinary legacy. The most significant strategy Bono uses to convince his readers lies in the ethos of the essay. He concedes “we cannot save every life” but emphatically declares “…the ones we can, we must.” This is the higher cause Bono has been building towards in his essay—if nothing else, one should fight against disease, fight against human suffering because it is right. Bono implies that it would be wrong to ignore the plight of these people; it would be inhuman and cruel. The language is no longer we can, but we must. He creates the image of
Work Cited
Bono. "This Generation's Moon Shot." Time 7 Nov 2005. 3 Jan 2006
No comments:
Post a Comment