President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize

I find it odd that when the President wins a Peace Prize, the honor cannot simply be seen as what the committee says it was: an award given in hopes that the peace and prosperity of the world will be increased by the President. It seems to be a simple gesture to me, but perhaps it is the simple desire and sincerity behind the gesture that is baffling to others (though not to me).

I find it odd that when the President wins a Peace Prize, the honor cannot simply be seen as what the committee says it was: an award given in hopes that the peace and prosperity of the world will be increased by the President. It seems to be a simple gesture to me, but perhaps it is the simple desire and sincerity behind the gesture that is baffling to others (though not to me).

It is not that Obama has ruined the country. This has occured over many years and not the fault of politics alone. Philosophy,Psychology, Academia, Corpart fascism, and a loss of the free media. Many factors here.

Who does Obama give hope to? How does he do this? With mere words on transperency? Where is the change? Where is the accountability?

This forum ought to understand the law of the pendulum. It is a law of nature. The sun rises and the sun sets. There is a natural flow of peaks and throughs in us a human beings and in our organs as there is in society and economic systems. Obama will have one of the worst approval ratings. Because he had one of the best.

What Obama is providing is a false hope. A hope on taking from the middle and bailing out the Corp. Fascist and the poor and in the process crippling both.

There is no reward w/o effort. In anything. Spiritual or material.

My point is not about Obama or any other politician. It is if you like call it the Matrix. The sytem has become to complex and to convulited with an illusion that our lifes because of Big Brother being involved will result in less risk. But in turn it has turned out to be more risky.

A sytem where the individual concsience is/has been subjugated to the "Borg." The borg which consist of a bunch of so called experts w/o any real life experiences who can write a book as Gurdjieff said, "On how a fly gets a Pimple on it's rear end but know nothing about the fly." Let alone ever ponder the parts in relation to the whole.

A educational sytem composed of specialist who know a lot about very little never interacting w/one another to try to piece the whole together.

The noble prize not only in this case but in many other fields is a distraction. To give the media and Us something totally irrelevant to the main issue to keep us pre-occupied. Keep us glued to our TV screens listening to a media which long ago stopped breaking news and just became political entertainers. Where dissent is not tolerated and hard questions frowned up on.

Where brown nosing is the name of the game if you want an interview.

But what do you expect. Most of us had a roll to play in it. We drank the cool aid that everything was just fine. Now we are waking up to the realization that things are not as we dreamed. And it is in my humble opinion for the best to be awake. For only a sleeping man dreams.

A simple gesture is buying someone a drink, not giving someone a Nobel Peace Prize.

A toast in hope of peace and prosperity seems like it would have been more appropriate.

The prize committee themselves said it was more a matter of hoping Obama can do some good rather than a reward for accomplishments.

And Obama said that more or less himself.

It was a blatant attempt to influence Obama's political decisions in the future.

I don't believe that at all, though I do believe it was a political gesture of a different sort.

It was a brutal repudiation of Bush, and it's a token of gratitude to the American electorate. Whatever decisions Obama makes, the Nobel committee is awarding this because of his philosophies and priorities.

I feel sorry for Obama, I'm sure he had peace in mind but he doesn't really have that power or control does he?

I feel sorry for Obama, I'm sure he had peace in mind but he doesn't really have that power or control does he?

No he doesn't; and you bring up an important point for us looking to evaluate both his term and track record.

He's taken on an unconscionable mess complete with a twisted labyrinth of wars and the painful fruits of an economic policy that let loose the worst part of human nature. Along with this, we have some of the most backwards and paranoid people on the planet. If I, in my mind, combine these and think about his chances for success: I now get a resounding 'no'.[INDENT]It's worth the effort though; the ideals and policies he's come to office with. Perhaps some progress will be made in our country in the end equation (or some shadow that plants the seeds for the distant future). But these ideals lay dead at the starting line; run through by legislative complications, lobby-leviathans, embarrassing media campaigns and a people's mindset that knows only deep-dissatisfaction and frustration from decades of chasing happiness through consumption.

I hold out hope, but I think what he's come into is a situation that - no matter how you cut it - likely won't net much good. We didn't know this back during the election; but in retrospect, it wouldn't have made a difference to me - I voted based on the principles I hold dear. Even so, it's still disappointing.
[/INDENT]That he's won this peace price felt a little surprising at first; quite honestly, my first thought was, "wow, this will, no doubt, perpetuate another anti-Obama thread on the forum". Thinking about it further, its my belief that although he has done much to reach out in pursuit of peace, that there just wasn't anyone whose really done anything noteworthy this year; thus he came out on top.

I'll now brace myself in anticipation of the glenn-beck-wannabe type-responses.

Good thought Caroline, thanks

Remember how, during the Bush years, the GOP would disgustingly try to equate liberals with Terrorists by pointing out that they happened to have the same view on a particular matter (The Left opposes the war in Iraq, just like Al Qaeda and Hezbollah do! or bin Laden's criticisms of Bush sound just like Michael Moore's! ). It looks like the Democratic Party has learned and adopted that tactic perfectly ("'The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists - the Taliban and Hamas this morning - in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize,' DNC communications director Brad Woodhouse told POLITICO"; Republicans are "put[ting] politics above patriotism," he added).

Yea, actually, many notable spokesmen/women for the left have been very critical of Obama receiving the peace prize. And the DNC's response to some of the criticism sounds eerily similar to Bush's earlier rhetoric about people either being with "us" or with the "terrorists".

i dont see how he can accept it...not with any modicum of integrity.

even as a political decision it was also a ludicrous mistake.