Where Is the Class of 2004?

摘要

We're not supposed to know when we peak. It might have been high school or your wedding day or 2001, when you still had a weekly column in TIME magazine, but we soldier on by fooling ourselves that the best is still ahead. For the 86 people on last year's TIME 100 who didn't make it back on the list this year, however, there is no pretending. With this issue, they have been made all too painfully aware of exactly when their lives began their inevitable decline: 2004. These people are banished to roam the planet like zombies, knowing that their influence has waned, that they have been surpassed by someone younger, better looking, more influence-y. We have inadvertently created 86 Al Gores. I, for one, couldn't wait to tell them. Armed with both lists, I called some of last year's winners and asked them where they thought they had gone so horribly wrong. Most didn't call back, which signaled to me that they had got fat and lazy on their TIME 100 fame. Yes, I'm sure it takes all day to create new CSIs, Mr. Bruckheimer, but you can squeeze in a call.