Time magazine was born a century ago and for 95 years they have chosen the person of the year, which was later expanded to groups or social movements. In one case it was awarded to an invention, such as the computer, in 1982 and in another to the Earth, in 1988. This year many expected that such an honor would be granted to artificial intelligence, but it finally went to the singer and actress Taylor Swift.
I’m not sure if he is the person of the year, but I am pleased that for the first time someone from the artistic world has been chosen. In all this time, culture seemed to be of little interest to the jury of Time’s special cover, because this distinction had never before gone to someone from this universe. Neither Pablo Picasso, Maria Callas or Ernest Hemingway, to name three names of planetary myths, were chosen by the magazine.
The writer Nuccio Ordine, who died this year, has an essay titled The Usefulness of the Useless, which is a manifesto in favor of culture. In a century obsessively dedicated to what is useful, where governments cut budgets dedicated to the fine arts, where the logic of immediate profits and practical benefits prevail, cultural institutions and humanistic disciplines suffer. Those of us who are convinced that “the pleasant is more useful than the useful,” as Leopardi wrote, it seems to us that Time’s choice requires some rectification. As well as being a celebrity, Taylor Swift is a supportive person, she considers Michelle Obama her role model and she is a reader of history books, well she is even better.
The choice of the person of the year was an idea that arose from a mistake: not having given the cover to Charles Lindbergh during 1927, after being the first pilot to make a non-stop transatlantic flight between New York and Paris, led to the invention of the award. His story also earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1957 for his work Spirit of Saint Louis, which was the name of the plane in which he carried out his feat.
This 2024 begins with so many dark clouds that Taylor Swift’s music can be the soundtrack of hope.