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XiaomingLover1 67 Reviews 2659 reads
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I am sad to say that political sages in the conventional world are NOT beating a path to this board. [Honestly, I can't imagine why]. Just as Jack0 has told us on several occassions.  Well, at least we still can  enlighten, if not entertain, each other.

Exhibit 1 : the attached link, "The World's Top 20 Public Intellectuals."

I mean, earlier today at work, office crises just had to take a backseat for a few minutes while i eargerly tore into this, sweaty-palmed and with bated breath.  Sad to say, all for naught.  And those damn work crises festered in the absence of my intervention.  Not one single blessed contributor to OUR forum make this august list as determined by Foreign Policy.  I mean, there I was, sure that JackO was on the list, but no [well, at least he's not there with his civilian name].  Nor waere our former playmates zinaval and Doctor Gonzo.  I didn't expect to make the list, no matter how deserving that honor might be -- you know, AIPAC and The Israel Lobby, sufocating dissent once again.

I was struck by the preponderence of representatives from the Islamic world and from SW Asia.  By my count 12 of the 20 can be described as falling into either of those categories, including the first 10.

And only 3 1/2 Americans?  Get this : Noam Chomsky, Al Gore, Bernard Lewis [a US citizen and a British subject, he's the 1/2] and Fareed Zakaria.  Al Gore!  Noam Chomsky! Wow!!! Now's that's really got to hurt if you are of a non-liberal political persausion.  Chomsky, bless him, what a great writer, I just love his indigation, thank God for South End Press.  But in the end, I find I'm not agreeing with him all that much.  Bernard Lewis, another great writer, a great scholar, just don't buy into his advice on any current political problem facing The Republic, especially if that problem is anywhere in and/or adjacent to the ME.

Well, maybe next time...  Meanwhile, we still have each other.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4349



-- Modified on 6/30/2008 5:35:31 PM

Related Link: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4349

zisk1358 reads

"For example, a number of intellectuals—including Aitzaz Ahsan, Noam Chomsky, Michael Ignatieff, and Amr Khaled—mounted voting drives by promoting the list on their Web sites."

"No one spread the word as effectively as the man who tops the list. In early May, the Top 100 list was mentioned on the front page of Zaman, a Turkish daily newspaper closely aligned with Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. Within hours, votes in his favor began to pour in. His supporters—typically educated, upwardly mobile Muslims—were eager to cast ballots not only for their champion but for other Muslims in the Top 100. Thanks to this groundswell, the top 10 public intellectuals in this year’s reader poll are all Muslim."

Yeah, that seems like a real scientific poll of the world's great public intellectuals. More like the world's great self-promoters. No wonder Gore made the list.

You also purposely failed to mention Stephen Colbert was the top write-in candidate. How can anyone take this list seriously?

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XiaomingLover12000 reads

perhaps FP was more tongue-in-cheeck than i imagined?  even with the SC write-in. but the real scary thing is, I've heard of almost every of those 20 names.

i should have written-in some of the names on this forum,  well, there's next year, and i'm definitely writing JackO and me in in 2009.

otherthan that, how'd you like the piece?

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Timbow1283 reads

The SC write in  with Colbert was tongue   in cheek as it  was not allowed by the DEMS :)

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