This year’s Person of the Year is supposed to be named in a month or so, so I guess it’s time to discuss it.
I think it goes to “The Essential Worker,” especially as they were left off last year in favor of the traditional Presidential election year choice of “whoever was elected President.”
My #2 guess: Dr. Fauci, if they want to select a “face” of COVID-19, the way that Rudy Giuliani was “the face” of 9/11 and its aftermath in 2001.
If Time does go with The Essential Worker, who do they consider essential enough to be on the cover? Doctors and nurses, certainly, but then who? A teacher? A grocery store clerk? A truck driver?
What Fauci did in 2021 does even begin to compare to what he did in 2020, so I don’t think he’s in the running.
My vote is for “The Space Tourist”. On the one hand, I concede that the many recent space tourists didn’t actually do any of the research and development themselves - they merely benefitted from it all. But seriously, did anyone dream a year ago that there would be a 4-person flight (admittedly suborbital) without ANY professional astronauts aboard? (Wikipedia: List of space tourism trips)
I can see it being “essential workers” to make up for last year. No chance it will be Dr Fauci now there is so much political backlash he has been dragged in.
But more likely I think it will be a theme based on scientists who worked on the vaccine. Almost half of the world’s population has received at least one dose. It’s remarkable the speed they worked at and the facilitation of the roll out in the face of anti-intellectual conspiracies and hate.
A long shot possibility I can see is Marcus Rashford - the England and Manchester United star footballer who used his platform to make the UK government perform a u-turn in providing school meals for children and tackling child poverty.
The problem here is, there seems to be a considerable amount of backlash against private space tourism (“If Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson can afford to send people into space, then obviously they’re not being taxed enough”). I can see Elon Musk getting it in 2022 if SpaceX continues at its current pace; maybe 2023, if the Republicans don’t get both the House and Senate back (otherwise I think one or more Republicans will get it, the way Newt Gingrich did in 1995).
Ever since Time went with Giuliani over Osama bin Laden in 2001, it’s been obvious they’re not interested in ‘rewarding’ villains. So, no, I don’t think it would be Trump.
2019…which is when she was named Person of the Year.
Guess what? 1938. He wasn’t the only “villain” to win; Ayatollah Khomeini won in 1979. In fact, so many people complained about the choice in 1979 that I am convinced that was the main reason they didn’t give it to Osama bin Laden in 2001.
A lot of awful people have won it. Stalin won it twice, Guiliani, Trump, Zuckerberg, Putin, Nixon, Bezos, Bush. I can’t imagine that I would enjoy having a beer with any of that lot.
There’s usually a list of “finalists” (a “shortlist”) that is released just before the winner is announced, although I am pretty sure they have a very good idea of who the winner will be when the list is created.
Here’s a possible shortlist:
Essential Workers
Capitol Police / “January 6 Defenders” (the problem is, the “Stop the Steal” types may co-opt the latter as saying they were “defending the true result of the election”)
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez / “The Progressives”
for that matter, “Kingmaker” Joe Manchin
Elon Musk (SpaceX), Richard Branson (Virgin Galactic), Jeff Bezos/William Shatner (Blue Origin)
I don’t care, as long as it is awarded to a singular real person, and not a group, concept, idea etc. If they aren’t going to name a particular person, they should relabel it.
I don’t know who the particular person is, but whoever is most responsible for the culmination of streaming TV. Without that distraction, half of the world would have gone mad over the last year and a half.
Actually, for the most part, Time does. Even before 1979, when it was changed to “Person of the Year,” Time’s Man of the Year was changed to Woman, Men, or Women as appropriate. There has even been a “Machine of the Year” (the PC) and the “Planet of the Year” (Earth). The only exceptions are when they choose an “anonymous” person to represent a group (e.g. The Hungarian Freedom Fighter; The American Soldier; “You”).
Ever since Time chose the personal computer as person of the year (1982), I’ve decided the whole thing is bullshit.
Then instead of choosing individuals they started choosing classes of people.
The original stated criterion was the person who did most to influence the news that year. It was not supposed to be “the person we love the most” or “this year’s hero.”
