Uncategorized

Some strange choices on this list…

Posted by:

Here’s a quirky line-up of "the world’s top 20 public intellectuals" published by a couple of magazines after a widely-promoted internet vote.

1 Noam Chomsky
2 Umberto Eco
3 Richard Dawkins
4 Václav Havel
5 Christopher Hitchens
6 Paul Krugman
7 Jürgen Habermas
8 Amartya Sen
9 Jared Diamond
10 Salman Rushdie
11 Naomi Klein
12 Shirin Ebadi
13 Hernando de Soto
14 Bjørn Lomborg
15 Abdolkarim Soroush
16 Thomas Friedman
17 Pope Benedict XVI
18 Eric Hobsbawm
19 Paul Wolfowitz
20 Camille Paglia

Looks like there are three criteria to make the list. 1) Be really smart. 2) Write a best-selling book.  3) Have your supporters organize an Internet voting campaign.  Here’s the inside scoop.

Our congrats to TED speakers Dawkins, Diamond and Lomborg.