Posted by Noble prize winner. The phrase rolls off the tongue and is used to lend gravitas to any argument by asserting that the individual as the ultimate source of knowledge and opinion. What has always puzzled me why the rest of the world seems to go along with this assertion that, “The prizes are widely regarded as the most prestigious awards available in their respective fields“. Or as this recent academic put it, “these awards represent the zenith of intellectual achievement for respective recipients in their own fields.”
Lets ignore the fact that Alfred Nobel, best known as the inventor of dynamite and owner of the cannon and artillery manufacturer Bofors, can hypocritically set up a peace prize after his death. What is amazing that in the case of chemistry, literature, physics, medicine, and economics, the award is selected by a Swedish institute while the peace prize is selected by a Norwegian one. The most egregious is the prize in literature which is awarded by the Swedish Academy of which there are only 18 members that are also members for life. In other words a small elite from, Sweden, a country of 10 million people out of a global population of 8 billion (or just over 0.1%) is somehow considered to be the arbiter of the pinnacle of achievement in five major fields. The argument hardly improves if we add the 5 million Norwegians in who get to pick the peace prize (the Norwegian committee itself is only five members picked by the Norwegian Parliament). And somehow the rest of the world is fine with this?
We all know the controversy that is often caused by the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. “In 2011, a feature story in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten contended that major criticisms of the award were that the Norwegian Nobel Committee ought to recruit members from professional and international backgrounds, rather than retired members of parliament; that there is too little openness about the criteria that the committee uses when they choose a recipient of the prize; and that the adherence to Nobel’s will should be more strict. In the article, Norwegian historian Øivind Stenersen argues that Norway has been able to use the prize as an instrument for nation building and furthering Norway’s foreign policy and economic interests.” What this argument doesn’t acknowledge is that why does the rest of the world think that a handful of retired Norwegian legislators should be given this much influence in the first place. If the Swedes and Norwegians want to give out prizes, they should be free to do so but why does the rest of the world attach so much prestige and significance to it? Why does the planet continue to give credence and legitimacy to the farce that Nobel Prizes represent the best all humanity when it merely represents the opinion of a small handful of elites in Stockholm and Oslo?
Personally, whenever I hear someone (usually journalists) quote a Nobel Laureate to try to make a point or win an argument I have the opposite reaction – I think they’ve just lost the argument. I just googled Nobel Prize Economics and clicked news on the search and the first one that came up was this: It is a report by Business Today (don’t ask me, I’ve never heard of it either) titled, “Democracy is ‘fragile’ right now: Nobel Laureate economist Richard Thaler on protests in India.” So here we have it, an economist making political comments. But he is a Nobel Prize winner! Doesn’t that make him an automatic expert on everything? Even democracy and political protests in India?
I’m not saying that Nobel laureates are not experts or good in their chosen field, just that their opinion is not any more relevant or important than other leading non-Nobel laureates in their field. Nor does it, in my mind, lend additional respectability or authority to someone’s argument. Dropping Nobel laureate quotes (and more importantly specifically pointing out that they are a Nobel laureate when making the quote) is the intellectual equivalent of name dropping famous or powerful people in a conversation in order to make yourself seem more important or influential. Ideally, the rest of the world will eventually come to the realization that receiving a Nobel Prize is not the zenith of achievement in those six fields or at least recognize that they only represent the opinions of a small handful of elite Swedes and Norwegians. Until that day, I will continue to disregard and mock those who name-drop “Nobel prize winner” like that should mark the end of the discussion.