I wish I could say that the problem was merely the classical contempt for popular culture by supposed purveyors of high culture. But the list here transcends those confines, and with Oprah there is a laudable, and disconcerting, endeavor to popularize high culture. That through her book club she can shape public perceptions of titles, set an agenda of public interest in authors, and actually push the public at large to read, makes her as much of a public intellectual as anyone, if not more so than most.

But to retreat for a moment to the traditional representation of the public intellectual, someone not on the list but who very much deserves to be, is Paul Berman. If Francis Fukuyama makes the list, as does Ian Buruma, then I don’t see why Berman, who skewered both by exposing their profound inconsistencies in a pair of articles (one a review of Fukuyama’s America at the Crossroads in The New York Times, the other an essay on Tariq Ramadan for The New Republic), should be forgotten. Berman is a modest man who has nothing to be modest about. Add him to the list.

And finally, who does not deserve to be on the list? I hate to say it, but placing Sari Nusseibeh, whom I admire, in the top 100 suggests that the liberal Palestinian, the Palestinian with whom Westerners are most comfortable, still holds some sway over Palestinian society.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure that really applies, though I wouldn’t want to suggest that the Palestinians are incapable of supporting moderate figures. What I am suggesting is that the Palestinian situation today, for an infinite number of reasons that we can surely blame on Israel and on the Palestinian leadership to varying degrees, is much more about the marginalization of those like Nusseibeh than an affirmation of their influence.