Most Influential Nominees 2010

The annual list of 100 Most Influential persons of the Year has just closed voting (by the magazine's readers or any other interested party) for the leaders, artists, innovators and icons who they think are the most influential people in the world. Unlike the list of say...25 years ago... this year's list is revealing for having and almost majority of celebrities and entertainers on it. Surely, it reflects the trivialized nature of of society, the dumbed down intellectual status of the alleged "educated class", and the misplaced priorities and lack of understanding of which people and what events are more important to the individual.

Take for example the top ten leading vote-getters. Of the top ten listed, here are numbers 4-9
4. Rain- A Korean singer5. Lady Gaga- the current darling performer for teens6. Adam Lambert- the gay guy singer from that inane American idol TV show7. Susan Boyle- The unlikely but pretty voiced British singer8. Liu Xiabo- Alas! This is the lone substantive choice was a chief author of "Charter '08," a pro-democracy manifesto that called on the Chinese Communist Party to enact political reforms and uphold the constitutional rights of Chinese citizens9.Sachin Tendulkar- a cricket player! I am not kidding.

If these (exclusive of Liu) are who most influences the voters, what kind of world have we created? And the list is littered with many other bizarre choices from actor Ben Stiller to golfer Tiger Woods I find myself wondering in what way the celebrities offer influence it the lives of the voters? If amusing them is enough to assign such importance for them are the voters (and by implication, we) now living a Disney World existence? Influential? No, just the flavor of the month. Time has really declined from a serious in depth analysis of the important news to trendy mush for the intellectually challenged.

News magazines are dying and One must see this kind of list as an attempt to keep the readers entertained enough to pull them from their cell phones, computers, ipods and other myriad technology long enough to actually read. My favorite newsmagazine News week, itself is said to be in trouble that could led to a cessation of it in print and a morphing into yet another "People Magazine" style gossip and entertainment magazine.

Society is losing it's screen of the events that we should deem important, replaced by "news" of the trivial. The world should weep at the decline