I have just become aware, via Slashdot, that President Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The BBC has this to say:
In awarding President Obama the Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian committee is honouring his intentions more than his achievements.
For comparison, here’s a list of my intentions:
- I intend to cure cancer (all forms), HIV/AIDS, and every other disease. Looks like they better give me the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine.
- I intend to end world hunger and poverty. I smell a Nobel Peace Prize!
- It is among my long-term goals to discover, in a flash of brilliance, the Theory of Everything. Definitely an intention worthy of a Nobel Prize for Physics, no?
- Also, I’m going to write a book which every person in the world will read and it will instantly become their favorite. Sounds like a Nobel Prize for Literature is coming my way!
I guess they can keep the prize for Chemistry, but I definitely deserve the other four for my achievements intentions, don’t you think?
The Washington Post has a pretty good gathering of various reactions to the news… my favorite, marked 10:25 AM, is this:
A surprising unanimity of opinion is emerging online that the award has been given to Obama prematurely – and that this both poses a potential danger to his presidency and will serve as a challenge to the credibility of the Nobel-awarding committee in Oslo.
Yeah. They are now giving people one point four million dollars and adding them to a list that includes such great figures as Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr., and Erwin Schrödinger, simply because they claim they want to make something happen.
I
John 3:18 tells us to walk in deed and not only in word. I really hope
Obama lives up to this ridiculous hype. In any case, I expect four Nobel
Prizes (and the associated five point six million dollars) to arrive on
my door when the 2010 prizes are awarded. With as watered down as the
requirements have apparently gotten, it’s a wonder they don’t just offer
us all Nobel Peace Prizes.
I’ll leave you with this to remember (thanks Mom, and whoever said it first):
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.