My apologies to those of you who have been vigilant in reading my blog. I have gone through quite a drought since my last post. This was recently brought to my attention, and I decided it was time to get back to it. My absence has not been from a lack of things to write about to be sure. As most everyone who reads this knows, I rarely have a period of time with nothing to say. My only excuse is that I have been pleasantly distracted by other very important endeavors.
But enough about all that, let's talk about what's on my mind, which is TIME. I'm actually not talking about seconds or minutes or hours. Not days, weeks, months, or years. I'm talking about the magazine, TIME. I do not have a subscription but for reasons that now escape me (possibly my membership to Netflix...which would make this blog all the more ironic) I received a free copy of TIME's special double issue. This issue featured the 100 most influential people in the world.
Several faces grace the cover. From Joe Biden to Michelle Obama. From Mark Zuckerberg to Oprah. But then I saw a couple of people that surprised me. One was an actor from the television show Glee and the other was Academy Award Winning actor Colin Firth. My first thought was "how in the heck do you put a couple of actors on the cover of a magazine about who is supposed to be the 100 most influential people in the world????"
Needless to say, I wanted TIME to justify their selections. The article began with an introduction exclaiming "Meet the most influential people in the world. They are artists and activists, reformers and researchers, heads of state and captains of industry. Their ideas spark dialogue and dissent and sometimes even revolution." Provocative. And the bar was set high from the onset with Wael Ghonim, the young Egyptian man that helped ignite revolution through social media.
I'm good with that selection, but on the very next page, beside Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, was a full page head shot of comedian Amy Poehler. Now from the well written summaries about Mr. Stiglitz and Mr. Hastings, it was quite apparent that their placement in the top 100 was justifiable to say the least. One predicted the US economic "bubble burst" and has numerous theories that shape modern economic ideas used across the globe. The other revolutionized an entire industry of business and went from former Marine and Peace Corps worker to one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our time.
And now that brings us to Ms. Poehler. Please don't misunderstand my criticism. I love the entertainment industry. Anyone who has seen my movie collection knows that is true. I enjoy film, television, and all other forms of the performing arts. I believe telling stories is important and can be beneficial to the world in many ways, but if we are talking about the importance and influence of the actors who tell the stories, we must be very discerning.
I respect and enjoy Amy Poehler's comedy, but I question how she can be in a list that enumerates the 100 most influential people in the world. It feels awkward to me to put actors in the same list as political activists, revolutionaries, educators, and business geniuses. However, to be fair, many actors and performers are exceptional with helping charitable organizations and participating in worthy humanitarian efforts. Thus, I took to reading the small blurb about Amy that would give me insight into her lofty placement on this list. Her mini-article was written by Parks and Recreation co-star and fellow comedian Aziz Ansari who spent half of his approximately 150 words making an ill-fated joke about Amy trying to get him to invest $15,000 in real estate. The other 75 words were generic platitudes about Amy's good moral standing and comedic prowess.
While I commend Amy on being a good person and a terrific actor, how does that do enough to be one of the most 100 influential people in the world? The list continues with arguably solid selections from Julian Assange to General David Petraeus to JPMorgan Chase head (and my brother's boss) Jamie Dimon. Then I got frustrated some more. Justin Bieber? Blake Lively?? Just because they are popular, are they really influential? Is it influence that has 12 year-old girls crooning "Baby, Baby, Baby"? One might argue that, yes, in fact, it is. However, my argument would be how are we defining influential? In 15 years will what Bieber or Lively have done be remembered? Maybe by some, will they still be revered? Have they done anything to change really anything in this world? And if the answer is no, I just can't see how they make this list. And I do believe the answer is no.
I'm not saying everyone in the entertainment industry should be barred from the list. There is no doubt in my mind that musicians such as Elvis and Michael Jackson would take up very worthy spots on such a list when they were alive and changing music forever. I just don't think Bieber is doing anything of the sort. And what separates Lively from the dozens of other young, beautiful actors of our time? The article did nothing to explain how she is more influential than Rachel McAdams, Scarlett Johansson, or Jessica Biel.
Matt Damon made the list, but I found his explanation quite satisfactory. Ted Danson writes about Damon's efforts to bring clean water to the poorest of nations through his involvement in Water.org. It was a very specific focus on his influence in the world beyond his acting. There are plenty of people influencing their company, industry, and so on, but if this list is truly a WORLD list, you have to limit those on the list to individuals who are impacting the most people across the globe.
So why does the list include actors and musicians who seemingly are nothing more than glorified "flavors of the month?" Is it an indictment of our culture elevating the importance of Hollywood? Does it say something about our minimized standards for heroes and people we look up to? Or is it simply a marketing ploy to boost brand equity for certain individuals? And if that is true, what does that say about TIME's creditability?
I don't have the answers to these questions, all I know is that the selection of several celebrities on that list bothered me. I simply hope our society as a whole hasn't been so desensitized by pop culture as to not question any of the people on that list. I want people to question and analyze which I think are two things many people have simply quit doing. In a world of open-source information like Wikipedia, where information of any kind of any form can be found in 0.5 seconds, we seem to have stopped checking the QUALITY of information.
As much as I love being right, I WANT people to question me. Just because TIME is a credible magazine doesn't give all the writers and contributors a reprieve from scrutiny. I think it comes down to apathy. We have become far too apathetic of a society to far too many important issues. That apathy manifests itself in silence which, unfortunately, isn't something easily detectable and thus we go on being apathetic to our own apathy. Talk about a vicious cycle.
So maybe in the long run, it really doesn't mean that much to our daily lives who is considered the top 100 most influential people in the world according to TIME magazine. But I still think it is worth thinking about who you believe should be on that list. While you're at it, think about the top 10 most influential people IN YOUR OWN LIFE. I hope that, unlike TIME's list, yours is void of pop culture icons and filled with great thinkers, supportive friends, and loving family members. And I hope everybody's #1 is the same... Jesus Christ. God bless.
What I'm Into:
Song: "Something Beautiful" Needtobreathe. I love trying to mimic the lead singer's voice (even though I fail miserably). They played at Easter@Verizon (Meck's Easter Service) and they were fantastic. It's a great song that spoke to me on a very personal level.
Movie: The Adjustment Bureau. I liked it a lot...plus it's the only movie I have seen in the theatre in a looooonnnngggg time. It has some very "Hollywood-ified" religious concepts in it, but it was a unique and intriguing film based around the idea of destiny.
Bible Verse: John 9:4 [Jesus said] "All of us must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent me, because there is little time left before the night falls and all work comes to an end."
