The European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2015

A new year. “A new age: of hope, and peace, and spiritual growth, et cetera. And I am still here for my sins.” See Prime Minister Francis Urquhart, To Play the King [YouTube, (at 1:47ff)]. And another year for the European Parliament to award the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

This year’s nominees include: Raif Badawi (Saudi Arabia); Democratic opposition in Venezuela embodied by the Mesa de la Unidad Democratica and political prisoners; and Boris Nemtsov (Russian Federation). I do not have much to say about the absolute or relative merits of the three nominees for this great European prize.

Instead, I will comment on the prize’s namesake: Andrei Sakharov. The prize’s website explains:

The Russian physicist Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (1921-1989), who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975, first came to prominence as the father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb.

Concerned at the implications his work had for the future of humankind, he sought to raise awareness of the dangers of the nuclear arms race. His efforts proved partially successful with the signing of the 1963 nuclear test ban treaty.

This is pretty thin gruel. Let me add a few details: Andrei Sakharov devoted the major part of his professional life towards developing thermonuclear weapons for the Soviet Union. He did this work under Stalin and under his successors. Sakharov’s work made it more difficult for the United States and the world’s other democracies to press for human rights reforms in the Soviet Union and the countries in its orbit—just as his work made it easier for the Soviet Union to threaten its neighbours and the countries of the world.

It is true, by the late 1950s, Sakharov had some second thoughts. He stood for human rights and arms control. And, I do not doubt that in doing so, he put his career, and indeed, his very life, at some real risk.

I guess the prize is associated with his deeds during the second phase of his life, not the first. General Longstreet killed a lot of Union troops, but after the Civil War, he broke with his former Confederate colleagues, led an integrated militia in battle in the 1870s, and even became a Republican! Is there a James Longstreet Prize somewhere? I suspect there is not. Rommel was part of the conspiracy to kill Hitler, and he was killed for his (failed) efforts. Is there a Rommel Prize somewhere? I doubt it.

I do not suggest that Sakharov, Longstreet, or Rommel were evil men, but they did serve bad causes. I do not say that the good they did (or attempted to do) during their lives is made void by the bad. But I do say it is wrong to suggest that the bad is outweighed by the good. Cf. Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) (“I do not say [God forbid], I do not say that the virtues of such men were to be taken as a balance to their crimes; but they were some corrective to their effects.” (language in brackets is Burke's)). Such a moral quantification of right and wrong is not possible by mere mortals, and those who attempt such a calculus only callous our consciences.

I suspect there is no General James Longstreet Prize, and if someone asked me if such a prize should be created, I would say “no”.

There is no Rommel Prize, and if someone asked if such a prize should be created, I would say “no”. (And—just to be clear—I am not comparing Longstreet and the Confederacy to Rommel and Nazi Germany.)

There is a Sakharov Prize, and if someone had asked me prior to its creation whether it should be created, I hope I would have had the moral clarity to say “no”. There were and there are other people in Europe and elsewhere who this prize could have been named for: persons who were not quite so morally ambiguous. E.g., Average people—people who were not heroic or even particularly bright. Perhaps it could have been called the Ivan Denisovich Prize. It speaks volumes about the modern European zeitgeist that a major prize is named for Sakharov, but the founders of NATO—which protected Europe from Sakharov’s warheads—remain largely unknown. It goes without saying that the American taxpayer who paid for Europe’s defence (and who continues to do so) is entirely lost from sight. Europe’s cosmopolitan transnational elites much prefer believing that the years of peace and plenty were their creation, as opposed to their being the beneficiary of American good will beyond their control.  

Now here is the hard part: i.e., hard for Burkean conservatives. This prize has existed since circa 1988. What may have been a mistake in its conception is now a public tradition, which—in fact—may do some good in the world. Jacobin perfectionism demands old things be torn down or renamed. But Jacobinism does not perfect the world, it just destroys remnants of our historical past. So, although no one is asking me, I am for letting the Sakharov Prize continue, even under its current name, but in doing so, we ought not heap undeserved praise on Andrei Sakharov. 

Seth Barrett Tillman

Seth Barrett Tillman, The European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2015, New Reform Club (Oct. 18, 2015), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-european-parliaments-sakharov-prize.html>; 

Seth Barrett Tillman, The European Parliament’s 2016 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, New Reform Club (Sept. 18, 2016), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-european-parliaments-sakharov-prize.html>; 

PS: My prior post is: Seth Barrett Tillman, Constitutional Interpretation and the Standard Originalist Narrative, The New Reform Club (Oct. 12, 2015, 9:58 AM), http://reformclub.blogspot.ie/2015/10/constitutional-interpretation-and.html
 
PPS: Thank you Instapundit. See Glenn Reynolds, A NEW YEAR, A NEW AGE: The European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2015, Instapundit (Oct. 18, 2015, 9:56 PM), http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/216797/.
 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SethBTillman  ( @SethBTillman )