Why Does U2 Irk so Many People?

What to do with U2? They are admittedly millionaires. From the very beginning, there have been those who find them insufferable, as if their earnestness is an embarrassment to us all. What's that about? Well, Jagger's observation might prove helpful here. We like to know where to put people. The placeholders are mind-numbingly familiar. Keep religion out of politics (or vice versa). Are you an artist or an activist? Sacred or secular? These divisions doubtless serve someone's marketing scheme quite well, but we know—our hearts and minds tell us—that it does not really work this way. We love what we love. One revelation speaks to another. Our alleged boundaries dissolve upon contact with the way our consciousness really operates.