You are the most powerful person in the world

I'm a little late coming to the game on this...the Times Man/Person of the Year has always been pretty stupid to me, anyway... but since they've now put me on the cover, I guess I gotta learn to appreciate the honor.

To be sure, there are individuals we could blame for the many painful and disturbing things that happened in 2006. The conflict in Iraq only got bloodier and more entrenched. A vicious skirmish erupted between Israel and Lebanon. A war dragged on in Sudan. A tin-pot dictator in North Korea got the Bomb, and the President of Iran wants to go nuclear too. Meanwhile nobody fixed global warming, and Sony didn't make enough PlayStation3s.

But look at 2006 through a different lens and you'll see another story, one that isn't about conflict or great men. It's a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It's about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.

Right.

Our decisive call in November for an end to the meaningless drawing of blood and drawing down of treasure in Iraq has been interpreted as a call for "a change of tactics" and, even more bizarrely, for something called "a surge" there.

"The American people are confused, they're frustrated, they're disappointed by the Iraq war, but they also want us to succeed if there's any way to do that," the Arizona Republican told reporters in Baghdad.

Confused, eh? But never mind, we can post all the videos we want on YouTube, ending the hegemony of the global entertainment complex.

No longer will Encyclopedia Brittania (or Funk & Wagnall's, for that matter) tell me what's important or (possibly) true.

Whoo hoo. "WE are the champions, my friend." Sing it with me.

Nevermind that MySpace -- a sign of our power to...something -- is a proud member of the Murdoch corporate empire.

But that's okay. Stephen Colbert's "Green screen challenge" is a sign that WE are a COMMUNITY. Don't you feel powerful?

Of course, Time Magazine was early to recognize the "blog of the year." Obviously, the editors are on to something.