The first time I saw this year’s issue of "Time: the 100 Most Influential People" was when my friend dropped the issue on the breakfast table, and Leonardo DiCaprio was glaring up at me over my coffee.
“What are you doing with your life? We have a planet to save. Get it together” his glare seemed to say. I had not had enough coffee for that kind of glare, Leo.
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But my friends and I leafed through the pages, scanning the list to see who we knew. The collection of people is fascinating: split between the categories of Pioneers, Titans, Artists, Leaders, and Icons, it is quite an eclectic group. The juxtapositions were fascinating, and it was in these juxtapositions that I started to get confused. Lin- Manuel Miranda honored alongside Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen? Ibtihaj Muhammad, soon to be the first American Olympian hijabi, next to Felix Kjellberg, a.k.a. Youtube gamer PewDiePie? All compelling people in their own right, but how did they come to be on this list? How did "Time" decide who is the most “influential”?
"Time" Editor Nancy Gibbs said “One way or another they each embody a breakthrough: they broke the rules, broke the record, broke the silence, broke the boundaries to reveal what we’re capable of.” For many of the people on the "Time 100 " list, this makes sense: Ibtihaj Muhammad is breaking boundaries between people as she shows the world what America looks like; Nicki Minaj is breaking the rules as she demands respect and admiration; Nadia Murad is breaking the silence as she speaks out “on the genocide being inflicted on her Yezidi people and demanding release for the more than 3,000 women still held in bondage.”
These people, like most of those on the list, possess, as Gibbs said, “the power to provoke.” They are provoking conversation, change, and yes, even some uncalled-for outrage, as they do what it is they do best. They are influential because they are inspiring future generations, opening doors and breaking down walls, and trying to change the world into a safer, more respectful, peaceful place.
However, there are people among the "Time 100" who are influential for an entirely different reason: people such as Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un. These people are also influencing and inspiring the future, but I hope (and the optimist in me believes) that they are inspiring future generations to never be like them, to never repeat their mistakes, to never be as hateful and as intolerant as them.
There’s a lot to learn from the "Time 100," whether it’s learning to speak up and act like them, or learning to never emulate their malevolence.
The link to Time 100, where all the quotes in this article were taken from, can be found here.
