Influence Peddling

Time magazine has a list of the 100 most influential people as this week's cover story. Whenever a newsmagazine has a list like that, you're naturally going to be skeptical of how accurate it is. But in this case, you never have to weigh that possibility, since you'll see the big picture of Beyonce before you'll see the headline. So you'll know from the start that this is one of them celebrities we like most lists, rather than a serious attempt to find the most influential people.

But that made me think: just who are the 100 most influential people? There are celebrities that could be on the list. I don't really see Beyonce as one of them.
Politics is tricky too. The partial list on the cover includes President Obama and Rand Paul (one from each party, how convenient.) While I'd easily choose Obama or of those two, I really don't see him as influential. Even when he was more popular, I don't know that he was influential in the sense of changing anyone's opinion. As with Beyonce, the lesson is that popularity is not the same as influence. Indeed, a lot of people achieve popularity specifically because they don't ask us to be any different.

As for Paul, I'd ask the same thing. He and the Tea Party movement are hugely influential within the Republican Party, though it's often unclear how much control its political leaders are, and how much they ate at the mercy of the movement's grassroots. Really, his namesake Ayn Rand should be on the list, even if she is dead.

They also included soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo. That will help them sell some European editions, and look real international and modern. But how influential are athletes? There are examples of athletes who have had a big influence on society; Jackie Robinson and Billie Jean King are a couple of examples. You could also include Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth as athletes who grew their sport and changed the way it was played. But most of today's athletes are made bland by their obsession with their sports. They only influence they have is in endorsing products, and in that case, the influence is really wielded by whoever has the money to pay for that endorsement. So I would imagine the biggest influence Ronaldo has on the world is starting a new dance craze with those weird hand moves he did after scoring today.

So the Time list is the cheapest of journalism: one step down from "read an interview with these people because they're famous," it's "read an article mentioning these people because they're famous." It would be interesting to see an actual, honest attempt to list the most influential people, people who can actually shape fashions, opinions, art and philosophy.  What famous people would actually make it?  What people we've never heard of would be on the list?  I don't mean to imply conspiracy theories, I mean there are a lot of powerful people who are not famous: business leaders, lobbyists, or economists.  I don't have an answer, but it's your research assignment for the day.