Subject: How important is one man?
Posted by: doublemm
Date: May 18 09
When looking at history it can be easy to attribute the great successes and failures to individuals.
However, how much can one man change the course of history?
Are they just catalysts to the inevitable?
Posted by: doublemm
Date: May 18 09
When looking at history it can be easy to attribute the great successes and failures to individuals.
However, how much can one man change the course of history?
Are they just catalysts to the inevitable?
79 replies. On page 1 of 4 pages. 1 2 3 4
Anton 
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Without Manny Ramirez, the Dodgers would not have made the playoffs in 2008. So, yes, one man can change the course of history. Reply #1. May 18 09, 4:09 PM |
Arpeggionist
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It is perhaps easy to believe that one person can't possibly have such a great impact on so many billions of lives (human and otherwise). But such such a belief is, in my opinion, a huge mistake. History is dotted by the occasional single individuals who changed the course of history and affected life on this planet for good and for ill. From Alexander Fleming and Edward Jenner and their lifesaving discoveries, to Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin who, between the two of them, share the blame for the loss of 70-80 million human lives (not to mention the continuing nuclear threat which might not have ever grown if Stalin hadn't kept ruling the USSR for so many years). Reply #2. May 18 09, 5:42 PM |
Mommakat
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To Arpeggionist, your reply is an extremely relevant and intelligent response to the question raised and I wholeheartedly concur....Mommakat Reply #3. May 18 09, 7:23 PM |
| Mommakat
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To AntonLavey: Get real, the trouble with young people today is they can't see past rock singers and sporting personalities. Those people do what they do because they don't have the brains to do aught else....Mommakat Reply #4. May 18 09, 7:24 PM |
| Anton
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So, you are saying that because someone plays music or sports, they don't have enough brains to do anything else? How did you say it? Get real. Ever think they do that because they WANT to? Get real. Reply #5. May 18 09, 7:37 PM |
| Anton
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Keep this mind Mommakat. Not everybody who has changed history was Albert Einstein. Reply #6. May 18 09, 7:43 PM |
| Mommakat
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Have it your way, Anton, but remember this, the Einstiens of this world will be remember long after the others are dead and buried. Methinks April has a problem.....Mommakat Reply #7. May 18 09, 11:01 PM |
| Anton
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That's a matter of perspective. Reply #8. May 18 09, 11:15 PM |
doublemm
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Well, even though Anton clearly isn't disregarding all other historical individuals, this thread is in "History" and not "Sport". Although the title may suggest I do not believe that individuals can change history massively, I do. And I'm not asking whether or not they can change history (they obviously can), I am asking how much they changed it. e.g How far would the threats of war continued if Hitler had died at birth? How would wars following WW2 have been affected had Stalin been outdone by Trotsky or Bukharin in the race to the top after Lenin's death? How would violence related to religion have changed had King Henry VIII been slightly lower born? Just a few topics. Reply #9. May 19 09, 12:05 AM |
C30
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One thing is likely to remain the same, even if we start at the begining and stop Eve from eating the apple and getting evicted from Garden of Eden...and that is wars. The only things open to question are who is fighting and who is leading them! Reply #10. May 19 09, 1:14 AM |
| Anton
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"Well, even though Anton clearly isn't disregarding all other historical individuals, this thread is in "History" and not "Sport"." History is history. What makes yours better than mine? Reply #11. May 19 09, 2:12 AM |
| doublemm
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I'm not saying that. It's just clear that sport posts (history of sport or otherwise) belong on the sports dicussion board. There may be a thread already there. If not you can always start your own. Reply #12. May 19 09, 2:16 AM |
| Anton
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This thread is about one man changing history. Ramirez did that. Nothing is specified about sports or non sports. Reply #13. May 19 09, 2:17 AM |
| doublemm
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http://www.funtrivia.com/bb.cfm?action=details&qnid=22770&boardid=10 knock yourself out ;) Reply #14. May 19 09, 2:23 AM |
| Arpeggionist
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Sports history is just as much history as anything else. Come to think of it, how many people were involved in rigging the 1919 World Series, and just how much of baseball culture in America would have changed if any one of the events surrounding it had gone differently? Reply #15. May 19 09, 4:21 AM |
BxBarracuda
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I think this same sort of thinking came up on these boards, during a conversation about Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin. I think the end result was that while the American Civil War still would have occured, Lincoln handled it better then a vast majority of other people could have. I would think he was one man who made a difference there. The events were not of his choosing but how he reacted was. With Darwin it was discussed that evolution would become part of science eventually. Darwin was able to put the pieces together in a way that was more scientifically valid then anyone else. It was fortunate that Darwin was on the Beagle but the credit is all his for knowing what he was seeing. Darwin was also one man who made a difference. Reply #16. May 19 09, 6:45 AM |
lesley153
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How sad when we stop taking any *real* notice of people outside our own age group, and pronounce that people who are removed in age have nothing to offer. One of the joys of internet interaction is that we find ourselves in contact with people of all ages, and all levels of intellectual ability. (We can do the same thing off the internet, but that may require more effort.) I believe that people are people, and everyone has something to offer. I don't believe that it benefits any of us to divide and judge on the basis of age alone. Reply #17. May 19 09, 7:26 AM |
| lesley153
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I would like to nominate William Beveridge, whose Beveridge Report paved the way for the National Health Service. However much we laugh at it, or castigate it, it has made a world of difference to us for more than 60 years. May it cease to be a political football, and keep looking after us for another 60 years. At least. Reply #18. May 19 09, 7:26 AM |
Rowena8482
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How about the times when one "little" ordinary person makes a difference? Like that student (and I am ashamed to say I don't know if they were a he or a she) who stood in front of that tank in Tiananmen Square? Or the soldier in the tank who held his fire. There must be many such incidents throughout history of one person picking that moment to make their stand and changing the course of events. Reply #19. May 19 09, 12:15 PM |
| Rowena8482
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Come to think of it, that man who swam Aung San Su Kyi's lake recently. He may well have changed future history, depending on the outcome of the 'trial'... Reply #20. May 19 09, 12:16 PM |
79 replies. On page 1 of 4 pages. 1 2 3 4
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