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Who is your Person of the Year?


Pangloss

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I think Putin was a good choice.

 

From what limited amount of info that has made its way into my tiny brain from my own 2 eyes and 2 ears (incl casual discussion, internet, radio, newspaper, etc), it appears from my side of the fence that most people were disappointed with the selection this year. I tend to agree with "them" (which is itself unusual).

 

Is your choice based on some positive impact or factors that you feel that he has contributed to the overall betterment of the human state or are you looking at it from overall impact (or potential impact) period to humanity and/or the planet?

 

Of course since lil Geroge, Newty, Krushchev, LBJ (twice), Nixon, Khomeini, Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini also won in their respective time frames, I do conceed that your (and Time's) choice may be spot on.

 

Although it is by no means equivical, one could make the case that Time Person (Man) of the Year can be the kiss of death for a person's place in history.

 

 

The Man of the Year Winners

1927 Charles Augustus Lindbergh

1928 Walter P. Chrysler

1929 Owen D. Young

1930 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

1931 Pierre Laval

1932 Franklin Delano Roosevelt

1933 Hugh Samuel Johnson

1934 Franklin Delano Roosevelt

1935 Haile Selassie

1936 Mrs. Wallis Warfield Simpson

1937 Generalissimo & Mme Chiang Kai-Shek

1938 Adolf Hitler

1939 Joseph Stalin

1940 Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill

1941 Franklin Delano Roosevelt

1942 Joseph Stalin

1943 George Catlett Marshall

1944 Dwight David Eisenhower

1945 Harry Truman

1946 James F. Byrnes

1947 George Catlett Marshall

1948 Harry Truman

1949 Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill

1950 American Fighting-Man

1951 Mohammed Mossadegh

1952 Elizabeth II

1953 Konrad Adenauer

1954 John Foster Dulles

1955 Harlow Herbert Curtice

1956 Hungarian Freedom Fighter

1957 Nikita Krushchev

1958 Charles De Gaulle

1959 Dwight David Eisenhower

1960 U.S. Scientists

1961 John Fitzgerald Kennedy

1962 Pope John XXIII

1963 Martin Luther King Jr.

1964 Lyndon B. Johnson

1965 General William Childs Westmoreland

1966 Twenty-Five and Under

1967 Lyndon B. Johnson

1968 Astronauts Anders, Borman and Lovell

1969 The Middle Americans

1970 Willy Brandt

1971 Richard Milhous Nixon

1972 Nixon and Kissinger

1973 John J. Sirica

1974 King Faisal

1975 American Women

1976 Jimmy Carter

1977 Anwar Sadat

1978 Teng Hsiao-P'ing

1979 Ayatullah Khomeini

1980 Ronald Reagan

1981 Lech Walesa

1982 The Computer

1983 Ronald Regan & Yuri Andropov

1984 Peter Ueberroth

1985 Deng Xiaoping

1986 Corazon Aquino

1987 Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev

1988 Endangered Earth

1989 Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev

1990 The Two George Bushes

1991 Ted Turner

1992 Bill Clinton

1993 The Peacemakers

1994 Pope John Paul II

1995 Newt Gingrich

1996 Dr. David Ho

1997 Andy Grove

1998 Bill Clinton and Kenneth Starr

1999 Jeff Bezos

2000 George W. Bush

2001 Rudolph Giuliani

2002 The Whistleblowers

2003 The American Soldier

2004 George W. Bush

2005 Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, & Bono

2006 You

2007 Putin

 

PS: I personally feel that Hillary or Obama would have been great choices since, although I often lean the other direction politically (whatever that means), they are both breaking brave new ground for women and descendants of the African Continant in the USA and the World scene (btw, I realize that there have been women and black presidents and PMs) and I expect them both to keep doing it for a while.

But I would have REALLY loved to see the Burma Monks get it. That would have been a choice along the lines of Ghandi.

PSS: "you" in 2006 was a cop out.

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How on Earth could anyone think Putin was a good choice? He had just finished converting Russia back into a dictatorship by staging a rigged election, and he gets lauded by the west? Ludicrous!

 

It's not "best person of the year." It's "most influential." Russia is prouder, more prosperous, and more powerful than it has been since frescoes of Lenin graced Red Square. The Bear rises! (I'm a Russophile, in case you haven't guessed).

 

So, yeah, I don't think its a horrible choice. Putin is the father of the new Russia. That's going to look a lot more important in a few years.

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How on Earth could anyone think Putin was a good choice? He had just finished converting Russia back into a dictatorship by staging a rigged election, and he gets lauded by the west? Ludicrous!

Recall the context of the label before attacking the choice for it.

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_of_the_Year

Person of the Year is an annual issue of United States (U.S.) newsmagazine Time that features a profile on the man, woman, couple, group, idea, place, or machine that "for better or for worse, ...has done the most to influence the events of the year."

 

 

 

I can tell that you don't like Putin and his politics, but that's quite irrelevant to thrust of the choice.

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Well, we already have stupid precedents like "the American soldier" and "all of us"

 

The problem with "You" as the person of the year was that it was grossly misunderstood. In context it meant you as a member of a citizen media / participatory culture. It did not mean everyone in general. Time was trying to make a statement about how in the new media anyone can participate, however not everyone chooses to. That nuance was lost on the readership as a whole.

 

Ok, you never again get to complain about people wasting their time on television and Harry Potter! :doh:

 

I'll conceed that when Harry Potter is making points about the cultural mainstreaming of anal sex.

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"Person of the Year" should reflect someone you would look up to and Mr. Putin does not fit that description. I choose Al Gore.

 

Bettina

 

Al Gore certainly gets my vote......................

.........................................................................................................................................for pompus arse of the year. :rolleyes:

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The Time Person of the Year has always been about influence rather than approval, which generally makes it much less controversial. You might love Al Gore or you might hate him, but you have to agree he's made a splash.

 

Uh huh. Much like the splash that occurs just before the flush.............

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