President Obama Does, In Fact, Deserve the Nobel Peace Prize

On Friday I was going to write a blog post about President Obama’s Nobel Prize.  In the time since then, I have completely reversed my opinion.  Initially I was surprised and frustrated by the award; despite the fact that I tend to agree with and support Obama,[1] like many others I felt that he had achieved nothing to deserve the Prize, and that the award rendered the Prize less meaningful.  But I have been slowly coming around to the idea that the Prize is sometimes simply awarded for efforts, not concrete achievement.  So I planned to write a Monday post about that.  Sadly for me, others – more articulate others – beat me to the punch.

Rachel Maddow’s video commentary laid it all out beautifully.  The clip is eleven minutes long, but well worth watching in its entirety.  David Kaiser also wrote a thoughtful and well-reasoned perspective on the award, over at History Unfolding.  An American friend of mine now living in Norway explained to me how most Norwegians are proud of the Prize “not being merely a clap on the back for past achievement, but also an accessory toward creating a more peaceful future,” which is more in keeping with Alfred Nobel’s vision.

This idea is at the core of why many Americans, even devout Obama supporters, seemed so baffled by this year’s results.  We are used to “prizes” being awarded retrospectively for accomplishment (e.g., the Oscars, Emmys, and Tonys; MVP awards, etc.).  Anything awarded prospectively is more of a scholarship, grant, or fellowship, and even those tend to be based on promise as demonstrated by past achievement.  For example, the MacArthur Fellowship’s purpose is to encourage creative folks to, well, create.  Which is to say, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation gives a person $500,000, installed quarterly over five years, with no strings attached, on the hopes that he or she will do some good work.  From the Foundation’s website:  “The fellowship is designed to provide recipients with the flexibility to pursue their creative activities . . .”

But if you look at a list of the fellowship recipients, most of them had already achieved substantial success by the time they received their MacArthur Fellowships.  And more to the point, if you ask the average person on the street what the MacArthur Fellowship is, and you’ll likely receive a blank stare.  Prospective awards run counter to the American mindset.  There’s a line from the first episode of the TV show Firefly that keeps running through my mind:  I do the job, and then I get paid.  That’s the mentality of most Americans, and rightfully so.  But this attitude then causes a bit of cognitive dissonance for folks like me, who want Obama to win the award, and want him to deserve the award, and understand the idea of rewarding potential, but who also wonder, “he didn’t do the job, so why’s he getting paid?”  For folks already disinclined to celebrate any Obama success, this do-the-job-then-get-paid mentality simply causes outrage.

Rachel Maddow’s piece highlights the fact that several notable past Peace Prize recipients had not accomplished their goals at the times they were awarded their respective prizes.

• 1984 – Archbishop Desmond Tutu, for his efforts to topple apartheid in South Africa.  South Africa didn’t overturn apartheid for another ten years.
• 1935 – Carl von Ossietzky, a journalist, for challenging the Nazi’s militaristic policies.  He died in a concentration camp in 1938.
• 2002 – Jimmy Carter, for his efforts toward Middle East peace.  How’s that coming along?
• 2003 – Shirin Ebadi, for her efforts toward human rights and democracy reform in Iran.  How’s that coming along?

I will also point out Martin Luther King, Jr.’s award, and Al Gore’s award.  The day after King’s award, he delivered a lecture in Oslo on The Quest for Peace and Justice.  Though he never saw true racial equality in his lifetime (and some would argue it still doesn’t exist), the important thing to him was the quest for it.

We should remember that, unlike even the Nobel prizes for literature, physics, chemistry, medicine, or economics, the Peace Prize is awarded primarily for the quest.  If you read through the past recipients, you’ll find the word “efforts” recurs frequently.  Peace is not something ever truly attained.  It’s not like hitting the most home runs, where you accomplish the goal, then you’re done and nothing ever changes it.  Peace can always be, and is frequently in danger of being, reversed.  Therefore we should celebrate and reward the efforts toward its end, because they need be unending.

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[1]  But don’t think I’m drinking the Kool-Aid.  There are plenty of instances when I disagree too (Come on, can we at least discuss tort reform?); perhaps I’ll dedicate a future blog post to convincing certain friends of mine (ahem, Paul) that I don’t blindly support Mr. Obama, but for now suffice to say I’m an idiot minion of no one.  Except maybe of my fiancée.  And my dog.  But that’s it.