How naive can the world's most intelligent people be?

The most prestigious - and the only one known to the general public - recognition for scientific work in the world is the Nobel Prize. These prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, with the exception of the Peace Prize, which is awarded in Oslo, Norway.

The award ceremony in Stockholm is a solemn event attended by the cream of Sweden's society. This year, the Nobel Foundation, which organizes the award ceremony, announced a few days ago that it would invite all the ambassadors from every country to the event.

Even politically neutral King Carl XVI Gustaf expressed his surprise at the invitation extended to the Russian ambassador. Consequently, the Nobel Foundation announced yesterday that it would not invite the ambassadors of Russia, Belarus, or Iran after all.

Of course, this incident is not inherently significant enough to warrant a blog post. However, I brought it up because it demonstrated how naive even the world's most intelligent people can be (assuming that the members of the Nobel Committee fall into that category).

The committee had justified inviting the Russian ambassador by stating that they wanted the values underlying the Nobel Prize to reach even those who do not share those values. As if Vladimir Putin, Alexander Lukashenko, or Ali Khamenei were unaware of these Western values and ideas.

I can tell the esteemed Nobel Committee that they are indeed aware of them. Moreover, they deliberately disregard these values.

That's why I can only imagine how amusing it must have been in Moscow, Minsk, and Tehran as the aforementioned trio observed the incredible naivety and idealism of the Nobel Committee. In that sense, the farce we witnessed was not very surprising, given that it was the Swedes who, through equally naive and idealistic immigration policies, destroyed their own extremely prosperous and secure welfare state at the turn of the 21st century.

The original thought in Finnish:
Kuinka naiiveja voivat olla maailman älykkäimmät ihmiset?

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Hussein Al-Taee, an Islamic militant and a member of the Social Democratic Party of Finland
Most useless organisations of our time
Pacifism - a respectable tool to support inhumane dictators and warlords