# Annual Nobel Peace Prize outrage **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 12, 2012, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annual-nobel-peace-prize-outrage/637524 "2012-10-12T15:23:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annual-nobel-peace-prize-outrage/637524/101 "2012-10-18T22:37:11Z")
> [@yelimS](#): > > When there’s deviation from the norm, there’s a cause, whether you see the result as a ‘thing’ or a lack of one. There were constant warring in Europe up until not too long before the [predecessor](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Coal_and_Steel_Community) to the European Union. Your mileage may vary, but I hardly find it absurd to suggest that there’s some union causing this peace. I really shouldn’t have to say this on this board of all places but…“correlation is not causation” ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annual-nobel-peace-prize-outrage/637524/102 "2012-10-18T23:09:44Z")
Measure for Measure: > [@](#): > > 1. The first part of the quote is accurate…I agree though that the 2nd clause could have been better worded Hence the specific bit that I quoted in my response. Which, I suppose, you can treat as a comment to the Nobel committee rather than to you, since it’s they who said it. I did not realize that at first. > [@](#): > > 1. Substantively, none of the parties above were members of the European Union. And neither were the Balkan nations, which the Nobel committee felt the need to exclude from the snipped statement. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annual-nobel-peace-prize-outrage/637524/103 "2012-10-19T03:07:31Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > Hence the specific bit that I quoted in my response. yes. > [@](#): > > Which, I suppose, you can treat as a comment to the Nobel committee rather than to you, since it’s they who said it. I did not realize that at first. FTR, it wasn’t the Nobel committee, but rather [Dylan Matthews](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/10/12/five-reasons-why-the-e-u-deserved-the-nobel-peace-prize/) of the Washington Post, whose sentiments I endorsed. (Though I agree that you put your finger on some unfortunate wording). In other news Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, authors of the book _Why Nations Fail_, pen a blog post [An Unusually Worthy Nobel Prize](http://whynationsfail.com/blog/2012/10/17/an-unusually-worthy-nobel-prize.html). One central institution was transformative for European inclusive institutions: the European Union. The European Union project worked. Europe didn’t even come close to a war since 1951, and its member countries did not see their democracies threatened. The exceptions here prove the rule. Spain famously averted a military coup in 1981 after Franco’s death but this was before it joined the European Community in 1991. Europe experienced a bloody civil war in Yugoslavia, but this was outside the institutions and the remit of the European Union. For this, especially at a time when many are turning against the European Union and despairing of the European project, it is an unusually worthy Nobel Prize and unusually astute move by the Norwegian Nobel Prize committee. Noted experts Acemoglu and Robinson also fail to mention Czechoslovakia and Hungary. D’oh! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Fuji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@Fuji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuji)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2012, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annual-nobel-peace-prize-outrage/637524/104 "2012-10-20T00:10:15Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > The one thing I hope comes out of this is some modern realization of just how bad Europe has been historically and why even baby steps are to be encouraged. European history is like an episode of COPS, Trailer Park Addition. That is the epitome of white people gone bad and I say that a direct descendant of them. So who is the epitome of white people gone good, then? I’m pretty sure I can predict your answer, but I could use a laugh. Oh, and given that most white people have lived and still do live in Europe, they’re pretty much the epitome of white anything (except goodness, of course). > [@](#): > > I have no idea why the American left idealizes Europe so much given that context. The vast majority of the white people in the U.S., Canada, and Australia exists only because their ancestors had it so bad they had to risk everything they had and flee. Good point. It’s puzzling why they don’t seem to prefer living in a country engaged in several overseas military adventures, which keeps a quarter of the world’s prisoners with only 5% of the world’s population, is steeped in religious bigotry and ignorance, and which has the most unequal income distribution in the industrialized world. What are those idiots thinking? Stupid libs. > [@](#): > > I am glad they are starting get it to together and starting to develop mature government systems like the U.S. has had for over 200 years but I still don’t think anyone should get an award for going through puberty. Yes, US politics are so much more modern. Only two parties to pick from - what could be better? Oh, and that Electoral College system is also a paragon of governmental efficiency and transparency. Maybe someday those wacky Europeans will also come up with a system in which the voters think they’re voting directly for an individual when they’re really not. > [@](#): > > Maybe if the Middle East can hold it together for the next few months, they can be a serious contender in 2013. Ladies and gentlemen - he’s here all week! Try the veal! ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annual-nobel-peace-prize-outrage/637524/105 "2012-10-22T12:41:46Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > What makes you say that? > > Can you give some examples? I suspect that this is a woosh, but here goes. In historic terms, its only recently that all races have the same rights, including voting. Many totally untrained civilians have the right to carry lethal weapons in a domestic environment (Without a psychiatric assessment !) The ability to have your illness treated depends either on how much money you have, or you have to be nice to your employer. If you have no job then, short of a medical emergancy you’re going to suffer. If you have no job, you’ll be on your own financially. So what do you do ? Die of starvation if you can’t get one ? Or turn to crime ? American government is quite primitive. Sorry and all that but it is. Live with it. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annual-nobel-peace-prize-outrage/637524/106 "2015-12-09T03:58:34Z")
Update: Nobel Prize committee [gets it right.](http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2014/yousafzai-facts.html) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annual-nobel-peace-prize-outrage/637524/107 "2015-12-09T04:02:29Z")
Wow, only 18 years old. At that rate, I should have won two by now. Is she the youngest Nobel laureate yet? ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annual-nobel-peace-prize-outrage/637524/108 "2015-12-09T04:27:19Z")
Didn’t that happen over a year ago? ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annual-nobel-peace-prize-outrage/637524/109 "2015-12-09T04:58:12Z")
I’m a slow typist. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annual-nobel-peace-prize-outrage/637524.md?page=5)