People who were surprised by this decision tend to think of the Nobel Peace Prize as a sort of candy for good behavior, which strikes me as a bit infantile. If the NPP were just that, it would be even less relevant than a beauty contest. If otoh they did it as an illocutionary act to strenghten certain kind of US displomacy and it works - it would be a remarkable achievement, indeed. Of course we have no way of knowing for sure what the effect of that speech act, if any, would be.
Furthermore, watching the repug wingnuts and racists going upset over it is priceless. That alone justifies the award.
Wojtek
On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 9:06 AM, Chuck Loucks <lbo at hvgreens.org> wrote:
> I would say it is a reflection of how much the world hated W. After W.,
> anyone is better; I see this as a major snub to Bush. It is also a nice
> political cover to escalate/continue the war in Afganistan.
>
> Chuck Loucks
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dennis Perrin" <dperrin at comcast.net>
> To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
> Sent: Friday, October 09, 2009 7:36 AM
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize
>
>
>
> Matthias:
>>
>> When I saw this I legitimately thought it was a joke. Jesus, that's
>>> stupid. Conservatives are going to get a lot of deserved mileage out of
>>> this.
>>>
>>
>> That's nothing. According to our resident Obama booster, the Big O should
>> also win the Kremlin Order Of Victory.
>>
>> All Hail Our Imperial Manager!
>>
>> Dennis
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