Every year, at the end of the year, Time magazine selects someone as Person of the Year. Last week, Time selected billionaire businessman Elon Musk as Person of the Year for 2021. Musk is the CEO and co-founder of Tesla and SpaceX and now the richest person in the world. Tesla has disrupted the auto industry, changing it from gas vehicles to electric vehicles. And Musk’s vision for SpaceX is to go to Mars.
Some people always object to who Time magazine chooses for Person of the Year. One this time was Joe Scarborough on his “Morning Joe” TV show this morning which he co-hosts with his wife Mika Brzezinski. Joe was ranting on-and-on about such a mishap, of Time selecting Musk. But I think Joe was out-to-lunch. He never even stated what criterion Time uses for making this selection.
Instead, Joe kept mentioning various people who have done much good in the world to be qualified as Person of the Year. Joe, when you buy a product, you better read the instructions of use before trying to use it. Time goes out of its way every year to publish it criterion for making this selection. Here it is: “recognition of the person who had the most influence on the events of the year, for good or for ill.”
So, it doesn’t necessarily have to do with how much good a person does. Rather, it’s about how much recognition the person has achieved in affecting events in the year. Whether Musk should be loved or hated, I think Time made the right choice. What do you think?
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