[ExI] Time Magazine: Person of the Year: Putin(!), my vote instead: Anna Politkovskaja

[spike]

> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Amara Graps
> Subject: [ExI] Time Magazine: Person of the Year: Putin(!), my vote
> instead: Anna Politkovskaja
> 
> Eliezer:
> >"Person of the Year" is influence, not virtue.
> 
> In English-speaking cultures (especially American), this expression
> "Person of the Year" means to give honors. They (Time) seemed to
> have forgotten the language of the culture in which they are embedded.
> 
> Amara


Jeez yes.  I could see Time magazine having a special category for infamy,
but I would want it clearly marked as such.  With it, they would be
ethically obligated to also show the previous winners of this ignoble
dishonor, such as Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Tim McVey, bin Ladin and such
egregious excuses for human beings as this.  The notion of having a
values-neutral recognition for a person who had a lot of influence,
regardless of good or bad, seems to be a socially destructive concept. 

Putin is wrestling Russia from a democracy back to a totalitarian
dictatorship.  Time magazine appears to be cheering him on at every
opportunity.  Damn those guys, what (if anything) are they thinking?

spike