Friday, October 9, 2009

Rorschach and Awe


Today I was as surprised as most people to hear that President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize by the Norwegian- based Nobel Prize committee last night. My first thought was, what the? If the Nobel Prize committee thinks the new US president is a man of peace, they are in for a heck of a shock when he green lights the bombing of Iran during his first term in office. Which may be awkward now that he has a Nobel Peace Prize; he may just have to let the Israelis to do that dirty work after all.

What were they thinking in Oslo? They admitted that Obama hadn’t yet achieved anything deserving of a Nobel Peace Prize in his first few months of office except to ‘change the tone’ from Washington. They were apparently impressed enough with his lofty campaign rhetoric and obfuscating presidential speeches.

Most Europeans opposed former President Bush’s policies and behaviors. Europeans were ecstatic that Obama had replaced him. But really. Couldn’t they have waited until their preferred candidate actually delivered on one of his lofty promises? What was their hurry? Some theories:

The Nobel Prize Committee jumped the shark.
"A very special episode of the Nobel Peace prize." Obama won the peace prize simply for not being George Bush. In their efforts to demonstrate their great displeasure with George W. Bush, the Nobel committee had already awarded their peace prize to two other Bush foils: former President Jimmy Carter and former Vice President Al Gore. Barack Obama’s prize, awarded so early in his presidency, simply book-ended the virtual Bush face-slap. And, in excessive shark-jumping fashion, cheapened the value of the Nobel Peace Prize.

The sympathy vote.
From the rightwing “birthers” falsely questioning his natural born citizenship as a way to delegitimize his election; to Copenhagen’s rejection of his plea for a Chicago Olympics; to right wingnuts carrying loaded weapons to his presidential speech venues, this president has been under siege. Perhaps also the recent successful rightwing attempts to ban the president from speaking to US public school children lead the Nobel committee to mistake Barak Obama for an oppressed US dissident.

The fear factor.
Did the committee worry that modern day American racists, packing heat with impunity at presidential speaking engagements, were implying that they might attempt to cut short the President’s term and thus his opportunity to do prize-worthy good in the world?

Sheer manipulation.
[Please please don’t bomb Iran, Mr President! Especially now that our committee has honored you with a peace prize!] But this would imply that the Nobel committee understands the intentions of the current administration. Instead, I think the committee actually believes that the new president will fulfill his campaign promises to end US warmongering based on false premises. Republican congressman Ron Paul begs to differ with the assumption. [And on this point, gylangirl agrees with him.]

The Rorschach effect.
Once again, Barak Obama serves as a virtual Rorschach test for all who behold him. Republicans inexplicably see a terrorist coddler yet paradoxically hope that he will be soft on terror so they can replace him. Democrats see an anti-war champion of the poor, a redeemer of all that was once good about [small d] democratic America. [Gylangirl sees a two-faced neocon puppet who is already betraying his liberal political base.]

In the Obama as Rorschach phenomenon, the Norwegian Nobel committee members see...a Christmas elf apparently. From Wiki: “Supporters of the Rorschach inkblot test believe that the subject's response to an ambiguous and meaningless stimulus can provide insight into their thought processes. For instance, the red details of card II are often seen as blood, and are the most distinctive features. Responses to them can provide indications about how a subject is likely to manage feelings of anger or physical harm. [However] in Scandinavia, "Christmas elves" (nisser) is a popular response for card II.” Could this ink blot cultural difference explain how, despite the danger in the Obama’s continuation of Bush era policies, the Nobel peace prize committee sees only an earnest man of peace, whose now bloody hands are mistakenly seen as bearing delightful holiday gifts to the world? If he brings only more US war-mongering for the oil in Iran, might they eventually want to rescind their peace prize? If they are anything like the US Democratic Party, they'll ignore that discrepancy. It was enough for them that he replaced the despised George W. Bush.