Matt Black (One of 22) Wins 2025 MacArthur Fellowship
I Haven’t Won a MacArthur Fellowship, but at Least I Don’t Endlessly Bellyache About It.
The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the “Genius Grant“, is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and 30 individuals working in any field who have shown “extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction“ and are citizens or residents of the United States.
I tick off all the boxes and, at ninety, would be its oldest recipient.
According to the foundation’s website, the fellowship is not a reward for past accomplishments but rather an investment in a person’s originality, insight, and potential, but it also says such potential is based on a track record of significant accomplishments. The award has been called one of the most significant awards that is truly no strings attached.
It can’t be applied for but, like the Nobel, only others can submit your name.
The Orange Man whined and cried and stamped his foot and, like a child, threatened to hold his breath until he got a Nobel. All to no avail.
This year the Nobel Committee, with its usual wisdom, chose María Corina Machado. Maria is a young Venezuelan patriot who, at the time of the announcement, was in hiding inside Venezuela, fearing repression from the Nicolás Maduro government.
Simultaneously, and not to waste a moment, the Orange Man was shutting down the government of his country, denigrating its military, and unleashing a self-described punishment of his critics. He forecast his intended punishments at a CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) appearance in March of 2023, telling the audience “I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution.”
Really?
“Revenge is mine, saith the Lord“ is a biblical declaration from Romans 12:19, reminding believers not to seek personal retribution but to leave vengeance and justice to God.
Romans 12:19 is in the Bible, the ‘signature edition’ of which he hawks for $1,000. It’s printed in China, but he may have neglected to read it, no matter his MAGA following by Evangelical Christians, a diverse group that emphasizes the absolute authority of the Bible. The Orange Man has created his own brand of absolute authority, and those who oppose him do so at their personal risk. Ask former head of the FBI, James Comey.
The Orange Man said Friday, “The person who actually got the Nobel Prize called today, called me, and said ‘I’m accepting this in honor of you, because you really deserved it.”
“The person’ is María Corina Machado, and she didn’t call, but mentioned him in a response to a journalist’s congratulations. He couldn’t even bring himself to say her name.
Four U.S. presidents and one vice president have received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, Woodrow Wilson in 1919, Jimmy Carter in 2002, and Barack Obama in 2009. Former Vice President Al Gore received it in 2007.
I don’t believe any of them were welcomed into the MacArthur Fellows Program, but I’m not making a big deal out of that.
I know who I am.
And I am not one of the 1,175 people to have been awarded MacArthur Fellowships since the program began in 1981. I take that for what it is, the decisions of very serious people doing very serious work.
No complaints.