and time magazine's person of the year for 2006 is...

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 9:57am

you!

prescient choice or total cop-out?

[wonderwaiter]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 10:02am

Me??? I didn't even know I was nominated! Thank you! Thank you! Golly, this is such a surprise.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 10:05am

and you and you and you, too!

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 10:11am

What a cop-out.

"If everyone is famous and everyone's a winner... then NOBODY is."

I'm paraphrasing, but whoever first said that is RIGHT.

I believe the AOL Time Warner Marketing directors picked the winner this year.

It sure feels like a Marketing decision. And BOY am I tired of that.

[Calvin]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 10:12am

I decline the honor. Thank you for your consideration.

So they were too chicken to name Ahmadinejad? But -- in reality, they did, didn't they?

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 10:12am

It's interesting that all of the "me"s they picture are skinny and pretty. They also happen to be either white, African-American, or Asian; men or women.

Where are the fat Indian transgender "me"s? I feel misrepresented!

Updated On: 12/17/06 at 10:12 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 10:13am

Please... they all look like iPod ads.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 10:14am

I didn't know you were "fat" or "Indian" or "transgendered." Then again, I'm very oblivious sometimes.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 10:15am

i dunno, does ol' mahmoud have a blog? killalljews.blogspot.com, maybe? hitlerwasright.wordpress.com? praiseallahandpasstheyellowcake.typepad.com?

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 10:18am

They don't MAKE a statement so much anymore as "cater" one.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 10:46am

Does that mean we get their salaries for doing their work for them?

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 10:50am

It's the Romper Room approach to journalism...




"I see JIMMY, and NANCY, and CTURTLE, and ROBBO, and PAPA, and SUZY, and TIMMY, and RATH, and JOHN, and BILL, and CALVIN, and..."

[DG]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 10:56am

This is suppossed to be about the changing face of human communication, but what we've seen this year is that the internet crowd doesn't really wield much influence - SNAKES ON A PLANE comes to mind. I'm not understanding mainstream media's trumpeting of this new medium - it would seem to be counter-productive on their part.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 11:02am

It's the only way they can explain the precipitous drop in interest in their product. If it's not the net, it's them. And how can it be them if they're doing exactly what they always did. (Trick question! It's them because they're just doing what they always did.)

[singingwendy]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 11:22am

Seems the answer should really be "the internet"...but the internet's not a person......so maybe it should be "cyber you".....or "the "you " you present as your persona online"

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 11:25am

Did she say my name today mommy?

'no,..maybe tomorrow....'

(falls into depression)

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 11:26am

If the '70s were "The Me Decade" then I guess this makes the first decade of the '00s "The Me as You See Me Decade."

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 11:32am

Namo,..wasn't the 'me' decade the "80's"? with stocks and greed and gluttony stuff?
I always confuse them.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 11:45am

No, believe it or not, it was the '70s, according to Tom Wolfe. It was his comment on the reaction to the '60s and the sweeping social changes brought on by civil rights, women's liberation, and gay activism. Suddenly, in the '70s, people were focused on themselves.

Al Franken, of course, suggested that the '80s be called the Al Franken Decade but that never took. It was more like The Greed is Good Decade. In which the '70s focus on personal spiritual gain became a focus on personal financial gain especially if it involved exploiting others.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 12:37pm

No, you're wrong, Namo. (That has a nice ring to it.) It WAS the '80s.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 12:40pm

SM2--Since I was both alive and conscious in the '70s, it was indeed pegged, celebrated and criticized as "The ME Decade."


EDIT: And not after the fact... WHILE it was going on.

Updated On: 12/17/06 at 12:40 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 1:21pm

It was the '70s. Thank you, b12b for the validation.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 1:30pm

Well, excuse me for living!

Or rather, for not being alive.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 1:33pm

What bugs me about this, (aside from what I've already bitched about) is that they've lumped us into one be "you."

As if they're celebrating us and belittling us at the same time.

"All of you together make one big, powerful person."

It wreaks of both patronization... and a big, fat gimmick to get us to bitch, moan and talk about it.

Again... Marketing driving Journalism, more than ever these days. It's the same reason why George Clooney's pig dying and Lindsay Lohan's rehab is our big-time national news now.

We're being catered to in the name of the almighty dollar, not in the name of good journalism or aspiring priorities.

BO-RING.

This would have made for a great feature article in Newsweek, but NOT the Person of the Year.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/17/06 at 1:34pm

You're excused for not being alive, but what you're not excused for is not saying, "Oh, I guess after writing 'No, you're wrong, Namo. (That has a nice ring to it.) It WAS the '80s,' I see that I am the one who is wrong. I am sorry."

And therein lies the beef.

From an essay in "Fluid" magazine:

In the summer of 1976, New York Magazine came out with a front cover prominently featuring the word “ME.” The lead piece was Tom Wolfe’s essay "The Me Decade and the Third Great Awakening." Thus the term “the Me Decade” came into being, and an era of obsessive self-interest running to hedonism officially began.

Capiche?