In 1925, when he was selected to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, George Bernard Shaw initially balked, stating, "I can forgive Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize."
So, this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner is Maria Corina Machado, an opposition leader in Venezuela. Internal opposition, that is, at least officially. The external opposition is made up of the great world powers, led by the US. Any connection? One certainly does wonder.
It must be said that if Venezuela is undergoing a Color Revolution, Maduro's government isn't being that smart in their resistance to it. Still and all, the narrative building has been relentless. As Ron Paul puts it:
Is the Nobel Peace Prize just another deep state, soft-power tool intended to boost the US global military empire? The timing of the award going to the relatively unknown Machado is suspicious. President Trump has parked an armada of warships off the Venezuelan coast as his aides openly talk about “decapitation” strikes on the Venezuelan government. After the extrajudicial killing of some 20 civilians in his attacks on at least four boats off the Venezuelan coast, President Trump is openly bragging that no one dares launch a boat in the area.
The “Peace Prize” endows Machado with a new sense of moral authority and gives weight to any “green-light” she may again give to outside militaries to attack her own country.
It's probably not the first time the Nobel Prize has gone to a CIA asset, but they used to be better at laundering them.
2 comments:
It's been said of George Bernard Shaw that his abilities as a writer were only matched by William Shakespeare. I may not understand the quote about Alfred Nobel as a fiend for inventing the prize but its appropriateness is undeniable. He was a fiend for inventing dynamite.
Here's an example of the badinage between two candid friends:
“I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend ... if you have one."
— George Bernard Shaw, playwright (to Winston Churchill)
"Cannot possibly attend first night; will attend second, if there is one."
— Churchill's response”
― George Bernard Shaw
It seems to me that by the time the Nobel Peace Prize has devolved into a contest it's probably time to get rid it altogether. Not that Machado was in the running so to speak since nobody outside of Venezuela had ever heard of the woman. Still, the committee turned it into a competition and, as usually happens with the more famous awards in recent years, the person who might really deserve the recognition is ignored.
It's something of a wonder that out of 139 Nobel Peace Prizes won since the beginning 23 of them have gone to Americans. I certainly can't question all of them or even make knowledgeable remarks about most but CIA assets winning the prize in recent history is a reasonable guess. The achievements of some like Mikhail Gorbachev 1990, Al Gore 2007, and Barack Obama 2009 could be debated.
The armada of warships off Venezuela and the likely murder of fishermen that's ensued is bad policy for any leader to instigate.
Another favorite: "Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, and the pig likes it."
~ GBH
Shaw wrote a great run of plays starting in the late nineteenth century and continuing well into the twentieth. Caesar and Cleopatra is a standout. As for Nobel and dynamite, it's important to remember that he didn't invent it for the purposes of warfare. It was supposed to be a safer and more reliable explosive for mining and construction. There have been a lot of inventors who didn't foresee where their creations would go.
That was a great exchange between Shaw and Churchill. Wit like that is rare, and rarer still that it's found on two sides of the discussion.
The Nobel Peace Prize conveys prestige and grants an air of nobility (Nobelity?) That makes it widely coveted, by governments and other big players. They have a tendency to get what they want, so to the extent that the Prize ever meant anything, it's been hollowed out. And of course there's a heavy dose of self-congratulation that goes along with the ceremonies as well.
For much of that time the US has been the world's greatest imperial power. Has that had an effect? Probably. Gorbachev seems to have gotten the prize because of undue optimism about the end of the Cold War. Gore is baffling. Nice guy, but his whole schtick was just promoting fashionable climate science by that point. And awarding anyone the Peace Prize when they've just arrived in the Oval Office is begging for a letdown.
There are a lot of regime change enthusiasts glommed onto Trump. I suppose it was inevitable.
I didn't know the pig wrestling adage was one of Shaw's. Score another one for GBS.
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