Peace and war aren't intrinsically balanced; it's stupidly easy to make headlines as a bloodthirsty murderer, but it's hard to stand out as a builder or negotia

Peace and war aren't intrinsically balanced; it's stupidly easy to make headlines as a bloodthirsty murderer, but it's hard to stand out as a builder or negotiator. There are millions of brilliant people who have devoted their lives to peace, who are shining examples of virtue and altruism and everything else, but their stories aren't seen as being as dramatic as Stephen Paddock's. And thus, instead of thinking about the multitudes of wonderful people around us every day, we dwell on some asshole who decided to shoot an assault rifle out his window. Paddock becomes a nationally recognized symbol while the best of humanity labors in obscurity. Most of the crudeness of humanity can be attributed to this fascination with terrible things and people, I think. The Nobel Peace Prize can best be seen as a way of turning phenomenon around- of putting the spotlight on good people for once. There is no shortage of excellent candidates. That less-than-sterling examples sometimes win the Peace prize is perhaps a sign that the prize itself is being misused- awarding the prize to Obama was widely seen as an inducement towards, rather than recognition of, good- not it's intended purpose! The rest, the good-but-not-earth-shaking examples, are so just because the work of peace just intrinsically isn't earth-shaking; it's slow, subtle, and ubiquitous.