The prize was instigated and funded by Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. I got curious about his politics and looked him up to see if he promoted nonsense like this. While I didn't find much about his politics, his history is interesting. He had a PhD in chemistry and is well known for his invention of dynamite and other explosives, some of them military. He became quite wealthy. When his brother died, the news media somehow got the impression that it was him who died and some of the news headlines were very uncomplimentary. They called him a merchant of death because of his military explosives inventions. Nobel was appalled at what they thought of him. He'd never married or had kids so he willed his entire fortune to finance the Nobel prizes, including the peace prize, to try to head off the insults.
There are 5 prizes, 4 in the sciences and 1 is the peace prize. He specified in his will that the 4 science prizes would be awarded by a Swedish committee. For some unknown reason that died with him, he specified that the peace prize be awarded by a Norwegian committee. That's the one that makes these idiotic awards to people who seem to do the most to prevent peace.
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” ― George Orwell
It's not over when you lose. It's over when you quit.
The Bureau of Land Management has done some great work over the years and deserves an award. They've made some blunders but they try their best and could do with some encouragement. GD
The prize was instigated and funded by Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. I got curious about his politics and looked him up to see if he promoted nonsense like this. While I didn't find much about his politics, his history is interesting. He had a PhD in chemistry and is well known for his invention of dynamite and other explosives, some of them military. He became quite wealthy. When his brother died, the news media somehow got the impression that it was him who died and some of the news headlines were very uncomplimentary. They called him a merchant of death because of his military explosives inventions. Nobel was appalled at what they thought of him. He'd never married or had kids so he willed his entire fortune to finance the Nobel prizes, including the peace prize, to try to head off the insults.
There are 5 prizes, 4 in the sciences and 1 is the peace prize. He specified in his will that the 4 science prizes would be awarded by a Swedish committee. For some unknown reason that died with him, he specified that the peace prize be awarded by a Norwegian committee. That's the one that makes these idiotic awards to people who seem to do the most to prevent peace.
The reason for his willing his money to the formation of the Nobel Prizes is pure speculation. It is often cited, but it lacks evidence. Since he had no wife or kids, and few personal friends, and was quite an enigmatic and at times eccentric man, no one knows why he did what he did. He was friends with well-known European pacifists, and often communicated that he hoped his inventions would make war so terrible that people would find better options. He was also very pessimistic regarding this idea, and pessimistic toward people in general. He disliked the notion of democracy, and was very much a conservative regarding society and particularly the roles of men and women within it.
He reminds me a lot of Tesla, but Tesla seemed to have more hope for humanity than Nobel did.
Regardless, the Prizes are now jokes. If you look at the Peace Prize, it is pure political propaganda, and if you look at the other Prizes in the Sciences, there is a strange commonality with those who have won the majority of them. It looks strangely like who owns nearly all the media, and who owns nearly all the Central Banks. Cohencidence?
