Friday, October 9, 2009

Nobel Prize as Disservice to the Recipient

This is the first time that a Nobel Prize win has been a disservice to - or at least a headache for - the recipient. It'll take some time to see the final effect of Obama's win on his popularity and stature. It may ultimately elevate him. But since the initial reactions are "this is premature" and is actually amplifying the Saturday Night Live criticism of "What has he accomplished" they've given him a surprise communications headache to deal with.

I also have some trepidation as to its effect on the very multilateralism he's trying to foment. This is hard to articulate, because it deals with the instinctive way that humans react to things, but I feel that the feeling of envy/jealousy or whatever else you want to call this general emotion that he didn't deserve this, will result in a desire to burst his bubble, take him down a peg and generally may create a danger of impatient shortness of temper/patience in diplomatic relations that will heighten the very temperatures that he's trying hard to lower. This is of course, anticapatable and manageable through proper, appropriate displays of humility, and likely won't amount to much - but the point is that it is indeed something he has to manage.