Hey there fellow resisters — does anyone know where I can pick up a used Nobel? I’m asking for a friend.
I would never make such a request for an important prize like the Stanley Cup or any of the Conference league trophies. Those awards are so hallowed that players wouldn’t even dare touch them without having earned the right, lest they jinx their own careers forever.
Not so with the Nobel Prize.
Donald Trump has been publicly demanding a Nobel Peace Prize since his return to office. Most people thought of it as just another example of the narcissistic stunts of the American Caligula.
But then Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Machado gave him hers.
She offered up the award in hopes that he would recognize her as the rightful leader of the country he had just taken over.
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One thing about Trump is that he detests weakness, and Machado left the White House in humiliation. Trump opted to stick with Maduro’s regime (minus the figurehead).
Machado’s craven display raises a deeper question: why she was awarded the prize in the first place?
She’s been promoted by the West as a valiant democrat, a fighter for freedom. But was she really the person who deserved to walk in the tradition of Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, and Malala Yousafzai?
She has openly cheered on the strongman antics of Donald Trump and the genocidal government of Benjamin Netanyahu. That alone should give pause.
The decision to award the prize to a relatively unknown Venezuelan politician built the narrative of the people versus the dictator. But now that we’re getting to know more about her, the question must be asked did Norway use the prize to appease the political agenda of the United States?
The committee is made up of five retired members of the Norwegian parliament. The awarding of the prize has come under much criticism over the years because it is said that Norway uses it as an instrument for nation-building and furthering the country’s foreign policy and economic interests.
In 2011, Michael Nobel, a grandson of the Nobel family, accused the committee of politicizing the award in contravention of the original vision.
There have been many misfires with this approach. Mahatma Gandhi never won the award. Neither did Cory Aquino or Václav Havel. Henry Kissinger did. So did Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama.
In the case of Machado, was Norway hoping to appease the White House, who were actively undermining the government of Nicolás Maduro?
Her willingness to use the prize as a bargaining chip cheapens the entire meaning of the award. The committee should consider recalling the prize.
I doubt that will happen.
Instead, one can expect the Nobel committee to become the latest esteemed institution to fall to what John R. Harris describes as the “great grovel” in the age of Trump.
But if the prize does show up on eBay, let me know. It would look great in my rec room.
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