President Obama (left) is Really Brilliant. So is Dick Cheney (right). Not sure about that lady in the middle....
The List is back....
Foreign Policy magazine has just released the countdown of 100 people whom its editors asssure us are the "top global thinkers" of 2012. These people are so brimming with thoughtfulness that the mere recitation of their names will probably give you a braingasm.
Let's start with President Barack Obama! Not quite right for you? How about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu... No? US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton still doesn't do it? How about Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak, US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, IMF head Christine LaGarde, or Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan? Former Vice President Dick Cheney (but not his boss, George W. Bush)?
They should count for something, right? After all, these people devote their lives to nothing else but thinking and influencing people by the sheer power of those brilliant thoughts.
I mean, it's not like being the President of the US is the reason why Mr. Obama would influence our lives. Any time he thinks something quite smart --- "Hey, another drone strike will solve the world's problems!" --- that's the reason he is Number Seven rather than, say, the power that he holds.
Same goes for many others on the list. Don't let the positions they hold fool you. Even if this person was not a commander of armed forces or the head of the world's largest economic organisation, his or her brilliance would shine in your lives each and every day.
So no more quibbles, please. Presidents are brilliant. Chancellors and Prime Ministers are brilliant. Corporate moguls are brilliant. Bill Gates is brilliant. And lists are, well, wicked brilliant --- keep 'em churnin'!