Among the least comprehensible practices of awards committees, from the highest to the lowest, is the habit of “peace” groups of giving their awards to persons who openly and actively foment conflict. The most egregious example is, of course, the Nobel Peace Prize, which goes to activists for massively divisive causes so regularly as to suspect that the name of the thing is an intentional sarcasm.
Today our own beloved InstaPundit accidentally lands in that very trap:
WELL, THEY’RE GIVING OUT NOBEL PEACE PRIZES TO JUST ANYBODY THESE DAYS: Nobel Peace Prize Again Goes To Group That Has Done … What, Exactly? “As these unworthies collect their laurels, authentic peacemakers — such as 16-year-old Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan, who was shot in the face by Taliban terrorists solely for urging girls to go to school — go ignored.”
Really, now, Professor! Two for the price of one. Granted that the awardees are fomenters of conflict of no uncertain kind, Miss Yousafzai has promoted a practice that’s at the very heart of conflict in the Islamic world: rights for women and girl children. She’s not wrong to do so, of course – indeed, she’s shown more courage and moral insight than the rest of her country taken together -- but is her crusade really about promoting peace?
The English language is looking a bit battered, these days.
"suspect that the name of the [Nobel Peace Prize] is an intentional sarcasm. "
ReplyDeleteSarcasm? Irony? Given that there is nothing so peaceful as a very large graveyard..., perhaps disguised truth?
The hubris of our common enemy is that boundless.