The Misanthrope’s Corner

I SPEAK to you from my bed of pain, felled by one too many millennial lists. Somewhere between the 1,000 Most Significant Somethings and the 100 Greatest Whatevers, I lost it. I am now sick of everybody who was anybody, including Churchill.

The trouble with lists is that they are the work of conformists. Take, for example, that old standby, the Ten Most Admired, an annual exercise in lockstep opinion ever since I can remember. Year after year, it was always the same; an overnight newsmaker might occasionally break through the phalanx of acceptable thinking, but otherwise it boiled down to the President, the First Lady, and Billy Graham.

About the Author

Florence King

Florence King was a contributing editor of National Review.

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I SPEAK to you from my bed of pain, felled by one too many millennial lists. Somewhere between the 1,000 Most Significant Somethings and the 100 Greatest Whatevers, I lost it. I am now sick of everybody who was anybody, including Churchill.

The trouble with lists is that they are the work of conformists. Take, for example, that old standby, the Ten Most Admired, an annual exercise in lockstep opinion ever since I can remember. Year after year, it was always the same; an overnight newsmaker might occasionally break through the phalanx of acceptable thinking, but otherwise it boiled down to the President, the First Lady, and Billy Graham.