For our viewing distraction ...

In case you can't read the small print and aren't able to place the picture because our media hasn't shown it to you, the worldwide cover image is from Egypt in the aftermath of the dictator Mubarak's overthrow where a military junta the U.S. approves was challenged by protests in the run-up to elections that many Egyptians believe are corrupt and rigged.

Common Dreams labels these contrasting covers: "And Some Wonder Why Americans Are So Dumbed Down?"

In partial defense of Time, most people in the U.S. probably see the protester as aggressive and dangerous; he and his cohorts more likely think of themselves, accurately, as oppressed and betrayed by armed authorities who have dashed their hopes. People get angry when their dreams seem crushed; we have little experience of that sort of political passion, though perhaps we are acquiring a bit these days. Time is probably not entirely wrong to imagine that their U.S. readers are more likely to identify with the forces shooting the tear gas than with the protester.

Meanwhile to the U.S. cover: what a perfect reinforcement for the belief system that props up our inequitable economic system! If you aren't a nervous, obsessed striver, you must be a useless lazy lump. I bet Mitt and Newt and their followers believe that. All those unemployed shirkers must have brought their pain on themselves by being too contented. What a shrunken vision of human flourishing we live with.