The Nobel Committee handed out their Peace Prize last week to The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. The name of the group is enough to describe its efforts. They are based in Geneva. The interesting part of this is the group hasn’t actually accomplished much.
The group has spread their message. They campaigned against countries acquiring nuclear weapons and have urged nuclear counties to destroy their warheads. But which countries have they stopped? Not North Korea, right? Which countries have reduced their weapons as a direct result of interactions with this group? It looks like none and the Nobel Committee didn’t list any in their announcement.
So that makes this a participation trophy.
From an ABC News article;
“Asked by journalists whether the prize was essentially symbolic, given that no international measures against nuclear weapons have been reached, Reiss-Andersen said that ‘what will not have an impact is being passive.’”
So yeah, a trophy for participation.
The United States has nuclear weapons, which is a good thing. Our country’s democratic institutions, our civilian leaders, and moral fortitude can be trusted. We can’t say that about North Korea. And since nuclear weapons exist, we will never be able to rid the world of them, so we should be glad to have them. Superman rounded up all the nukes and threw them into the sun in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, but that caused problems. Moreover, total confiscation and destruction of all nuclear weapons is, at best, unlikely to happen without Superman.
The group said, “There will be peace when the people of the world, want it so badly, that their governments will have no choice but to give it to them. I just wish you could all see the Earth the way that I see it. Because when you really look at it, it’s just one world.” No. Wait, that’s not from the group, that was from Superman.
It is nice that this group is trying to stop North Korea from possessing nuclear weapons. But they haven’t accomplished their goal. Giving them a prize during their campaign and not at the end of anything successful is a poor choice for a Nobel Peace Prize. Let’s see some results with the next one.
In their press release the Nobel Committee said, “You’ve broken all the laws of man, Luthor. Now it looks as though you’ve broken all the laws of nature, too.” Oops, that was Superman again.
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