Welcome to the Twilight Zone

On October 3^rd, 2009 Saturday Night Live mocked President Obama as a man elected “to bring this country change we could believe in”, but who has thus far accomplished “jack and squat”. Less than a week later, President Obama is the “surprised and deeply humbled” recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. According to Alfred Nobel’s will, the Peace Prize is to be awarded “to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” It is not my place to say that Obama will not earn this award during his presidency, but to bestow this honor on him after a mere nine months in office seems, quite frankly, outrageous. Not to mention the fact that the last day to submit nominations for the award was February 1^st, 2009—just twelve short days after President Obama took office. There is nothing he could possibly have done in that interim to qualify him. According to Peter Beaumont of the guardian.co.uk, “The reality is that the prize appears to have been awarded to Barack Obama for what he is not. For not being George W Bush.”

In an interview, Geir Lundestad, Secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, justifies the decision to present the prize to President Obama, stating that Obama is a “wonderful spokesman” of the ideals set forth in Nobel’s will. Lundestad continues, “we feel he has achieved something by changing the tone and the climate and we want to give him whatever support he can get in producing concrete results based on these ideals.” I was under the mistaken impression that the Peace Prize is reserved for those who have already produced “concrete results”; it seems as if the President’s eloquent rhetoric has shepherded yet another into the herd of those dazzled by his suave demeanor and lofty promises. To illustrate the point, Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr., on October 6^th, admitted that it is unlikely that the Obama administration will close Guantanamo Bay by the self-imposed deadline of January 22^nd, 2010; and the Obama administration and some members of Congress have now concluded that Iran is, in fact, pursuing nuclear weapons, despite President Obama’s declaration to the United Nations that Iran will be “held accountable” should they refuse to abandon their quest for nuclear power. Furthermore, it is no secret that North Korea is in possession of and has tested nuclear weapons. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are far from over, the United States suffers from an economic crisis and severe partisan bickering, and yet, President Obama is deemed worthy of this great honor that has previously been granted to luminaries like Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, and Nelson Mandela. On the other hand, the fact that both Jimmy Carter and Arafat were considered worthy recipients of this prestigious award makes the Nobel Prize irrelevant in my eyes.

I don’t know about you, but I find it a little eerie to reside in a world where the decisions of the Norwegian Nobel Committee are mocked by the Taliban, among others, and where Saturday Night Live rings true.

One Response to “Welcome to the Twilight Zone”

1. Blaise Vanderhorst says:

   October 14, 2009 at 7:52 pm

   Wonderfully written, Audrey. The Nobel Committee have made fools of themselves, and, if trends continue, they will have awarded a man who has achieved nothing and failed at nearly everything. The fact that he was chosen for the award after less than two weeks in office reveals the deceitfulness of the elites. Conservative or Liberal, they do not care for the people, but merely seek to manipulate them, to pander to their appetites so that they might retain power. Conservative or Liberal, Republican or Democrat, Fox News, CNN, or MSNBC, all are part of the hydra whose coils ensnare and smother us all.

   For the liberals Obama has been a disappointment, a sellout, and “not liberal enough”, while Conservatives, and even a fare share of moderates, see him as a socialist and a threat to American liberty.
   America, that once exceptional national, the one nation with the power to change the world for the better, has chosen inaction, mediocrity, and to pursue the failed models of post-modern Western Europe.

   I’m reminded of the first part of Yeats’ “The Second Coming”:

   Turning and turning in the widening gyre
   The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
   Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
   Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
   The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
   The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
   The best lack all conviction, while the worst
   Are full of passionate intensity.