Nobel? That's No Prize

How people can so easily be taken by so-called honors has always puzzled me. The press regularly touts Pulitzers, for instance, but why? Joseph Pulitzer was not interested in truthful journalism. After purchasing the New York World, he changed it to focus on human-interest stories, scandal, and sensationalism. Excellent journalism was never a priority of his, and the prizes reflect it. So does the mainstream press which is yellower than ever in both the conventional journalistic sense and the colloquial sense of cowardly.

Even worse, however, are the Nobels. Alfred Nobel established the prizes in his will after having been called a "merchant of death" by a French newspaper. Although mostly remembered today as the inventor of dynamite, Nobel was mainly an arms manufacturer. Apparently he established the prizes to assuage his guilt, which is reminiscent of the Emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity on his deathbed in hopes of escaping eternal punishment for his many horrid deeds.

And the prizes have not been distinguished. Nobels are political prizes. They are almost always given to those committed to Western civilization and Capitalism. When given to non-westerners, the recipients are always those who are critical of the non-western civilizations they live or lived in. From the Nobel Committee's point of view, nothing is prize worthy that isn't Western.

Most of the economics prizes have gone to conventional American economists, and look at the mess they have gotten the world-wide economy in. And the Peace Prize recipients are a study in themselves. Arafat, Peres, Rabin, Wiesel, Sadat, Begin, Kissinger, Chamberlain all received it. If you survey the complete list of ninety recipients, you will not even recognize most of the names. If anything distinguishes these people, it is their failure to produce peace. In fact Alfred Nobel didn't even call it a peace prize: "the fifth prize is to be given to the person or society that renders the greatest service to the cause of international fraternity, in the suppression or reduction of standing armies, or in the establishment or furtherance of peace congresses [emphasis mine]." The attainment of peace is not one of the criteria. Mother Teresa received the prize; she had nothing whatsoever to do with war and peace.

So now Obama has gotten the prize. Big deal! Why was it awarded to him? Because he, like all Western diplomats, talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk. He talks change but implements none. He appointed people with deep ties to the banking industry to the treasury who then bailed out the bankers and protected their bonuses. When the treasury bailed out the auto industry, it reduced the wages and benefits of workers. He reappointed a Bush holdover to Secretary of Defense (read perpetual war) and is in the process of expanding the war in Afghanistan and extending it into Pakistan. He continues America's unqualified support for Israel which is the main destabilizing circumstance in the Middle East. His healthcare reform has turned into an insurance industry, medical provider, and pharmaceutical company income enhancement bill. He is a protector of the economic status quo and a hegemonist—a true child of a decadent civilization, exactly what the Nobel Committee looks for. The deadly arms manufacturer would be highly pleased.

©2009 John Kozy