The Norwegians are evidently smarting from alleged snubs by President Obama during his visit to pick up his Nobel. And it is rather stunning the President couldn’t find time to lunch with their king. But I have a suggestion for the Norwegians: Spare yourselves the embarrassment and get rid of the Peace Prize altogether. It has outworn its usefulness – if it ever had any.
Okay, I admit I have no standing in requesting this. At least Lionel Chetwynd and I were members of the Academy when we called last week for that organization to rescind Al Gore’s (actually his producer’s) Oscar for “An Inconvenient Truth.”
Nevertheless, the Norwegians would actually be doing themselves a favor by dropping the Peace Prize, which has become a moral absurdity since their committee gave it to Yasser Arafat some years ago. (Why not Manson when he’s still alive? Okay, Arafat killed more people when he nailed those Israeli athletes in Munich.). Very peaceful, wouldn’t you say?
Medicine, chemistry, physics, etc. are much better bets. For one thing, the recipients are largely unknown to the public and therefore bound to be much less controversial. And the literature committee of late has done a good job of choosing unknown prize winners as well. It’s probably advisable to keep it that way.
But the Peace Prize? Fuhgedabouddit! (Yes, I chose the Mafia locution deliberately. It seems to fit.)
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