TIME – Person of the Year – It must be another joke?

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Probaway Person of the Year, Review of TIME - Person of the Year, TIME - Person of the Year - 2012, TIME person of the year

TIME magazine’s Person of the Year has had its list of popular world movers since 1929 when Charles Lindbergh was the first one. I got started a little later and this year will be my 6th Probaway Person of the Year, but I do value TIME’s take on what they think is of historical importance. Their view is driven by the popular events of the previous year, and mine is based on what event of the previous year will probably be remembered in 500 years. That of course is speculation, and we will never know personally how accurate those choices can be because we will be long gone. Some things will obviously be remembered, like man’s first step on the Moon, which didn’t get a TIME person of the Year, and many things will be long forgotten, like who got elected President of the USA in a particular year, which frequently does get a cover. Here are the TIME covers from 1927-2011. George W. Bush got three covers. Here is Probaway’s critique from 2011.

Below is TIME’s chart with their links, with added comments based on these individuals’ 500-year fame estimate. All of these people are important today, but the issue here is their memorability in the distant future. Compare to last year’s list.

TIME Person 2012	Votes 2012/11/28	500 year Memorability Comments
	Mohamed Morsy	247,559	Egypt’s new Prime minister.
	Kim Jong Un	175,468	N Korea Head of State.
Malala Yousafzai	116,563	A possible Joan of Ark girl.
Stephen Colbert	57,674	King Maker, but not this year.
Bashar Assad	54,804	Civil war national failure.
Psy	54,080	A popular quirky dance style.
The Mars Rover	53,246	If finds life makes it #1
Undocumented Immigrants	49,727	Nothing new — we are always coming here
Barack Obama	49,015	Successful middle of the roader.
The Higgs Boson Particle	40,368	It has been here all along.
Felix Baumgartner	35,475	Gravity still works.
Jon Stewart	33,174	Keeping people honest via comedy.
Pussy Riot	30,844	Continuing women’s rights.
Aung San Suu Kyi and Thein Sein	29,549	Burma’s civil rights.
Hillary Clinton	29,548	Top US diplomat does job okay.
Bill Clinton	26,050	X-pres still speaks well.
Michael Phelps	25,932	22 Olympic medals, stops counting.
Gabby Douglas	22,652	Honorable gymnast.
Ai Weiwei	21,891	Dissident Chinese artist.
Sandra Fluke	21,642	Women’s rights advocate.
Joe Biden	15,721	Sometimes a great speaker.
Chris Christie	15,521	A hurricane responder.
John Roberts	13,453	The future of America.
Mitt Romney	13,024	He had it all! Including blunders.
Marissa Mayer	12,268	A top female exec.
Mo Farah	12,039	Multicultural Olympic hero.
Benjamin Netanyahu	11,832	Trapped in a lose/lose decision.
Michael Bloomberg	10,961	NYC mayor bans big pops.
Paul Ryan	9,687	Sidekick this time, presidential next one.
Jay-Z	8,044	Major politically popular rapper.
Mario Draghi	6,929	Europe’s present banker.
Tim Cook	6,924	New head of Apple.
Xi Jinping	5,781	Presides over fabulous new China.
Bo Xilai	4,625	Chinese leader in trouble.
Sheldon Adelson	3,665	Plutocrat buys politicians.
E.L. James	3,216	Sex still sells, big.
Karl Rove	3,078	Political brainchild lost this time.
Roger Goodell	2,827	Own sports in America.

There is some hope of long term memorability for the Curiosity rover if it discovers life on Mars, for Benjamin Netanyahu if he attacks Iran’s nuclear facilities and Xi Jinping if he continues his next ten years of China’s growth. In a few years we will know the answers to those questions. The others haven’t done anything this 2012 that is going to be remembered in 500 years.