I am Time’s Man of the Year

I am pleased to announce that I am Time’s Man of the Year for 2006. Oh, sure, read one way — the slavishly literate may even say, “the correct way” — the magazine is referring to a collective “you.” But I prefer to think that Time Magazine was just embarassed at the extent to which its perspective was influenced by one scrappy little Indiana political blog with a fixation on Daylight Saving Time. So, when it said “you,” it created the smokescreen of the collective “you,” when presumably it really it meant “me;” Doug Masson.

Here is what the magazine said. But I will leave it to you, dear reader, to read between the lines:

We’re looking at an explosion of productivity and innovation, and it’s just getting started, as millions of minds that would otherwise have drowned in obscurity get backhauled into the global intellectual economy.

Who are these people? Seriously, who actually sits down after a long day at work and says, I’m not going to watch Lost tonight. I’m going to turn on my computer and make a movie starring my pet iguana? I’m going to mash up 50 Cent’s vocals with Queen’s instrumentals? I’m going to blog about my state of mind or the state of the nation or the steak-frites at the new bistro down the street? Who has that time and that energy and that passion?

The answer is, you do. And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME’s Person of the Year for 2006 is you.