Friday, October 12, 2007

The Nobel prize for best politics

Jeff Jacoby explains the Nobel peace prizes are often so foolishly awarded:
[I]t is worth nothing an important difference between the peace prize and the other Nobel prizes. The Swedish scholars and scientists who make up the committees that award the science, literature, and economics prizes routinely choose honorees whose greatest work was done years, even decades, earlier. ....

By contrast, the Norwegian committee entrusted with awarding the peace prize comprises politicians, not scholars. Like politicians everywhere, the peace prize committee tends to be more interested in what the headlines will say today than in what historians will believe 20 -- or 100 -- years from now. [emphasis added]

For more on the Nobel "peace" prize , see Jesse Walker and James Taranto.

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