You need your thinking cap on...

[Chivas Regal]

This is a 2 part question that should make you go hmmmmm...


1. Who was the MOST influential person of the 20 century?

2. Why??

Chivas

PS. This always makes people rant when they hear my opinion!

 

[Goober Mcfly]

Fred Zed.

Obvious reason.

/pandering

 

[Chivas Regal]

Sorry, wrong.

Not Bill Gates.

Chivas

 

[train]

not a supporter but ....Lenin

 

[Chivas Regal]

Hugh certainly is right up there badnick, but alas, not even close.

I'm off for a beer, keep thinking boys and girls.

Chivas

 

[Chivas Regal]

not a supporter but ....Lenin

Part 2- Why?

 

[Greetings]

20thC inventor

Who: the Wright brothers, Wilbur and Orville

Why: December 17, 1903 they had their first successful flight using a "flying machine".

Sure, it only flew for 12 seconds on that first flight, but now I use those aeroplanes all the time to get places very far away.

Greetings

 

[duMaurierguy]

Adolf Hitler

...was the one that had the most impact on the 20th century! With the amount of research/development that was done by both sides to come with bigger and better weapons to win the war. The result of which was not only the nuclear bomb but the discovories that came from it (nylon, microwave ovens, nuclear power to name a few). The face of Europe had changed after to WW11 as well (East/West). The political climate also was changed forever. The whole course of history infact - all due to a madman. Food for thought....

 

[eyeofthedragon]

Albert Einstein of course ! Revolutionary scientist and biggest step foward in thinking since Sir Isaac Newton.

 

[Chivas Regal]

The Wright Brothers...

First time that these two have been presented to me as influential.

Actually made me think for a sec, very good greetings. There is an argument to be made for sure, but still not quite who I envision.

 

[Goober Mcfly]

Chivas, I take it from your silence that you don't think Fred Zed is the most influential, huh?

For shame.

 

[Chivas Regal]

Goober...

Although Fred, indeed has done a lot to change my life, he really hasn't influenced the WHOLE world and every single person in it.

The person I refer too does.

Perhaps your friend Holden knows the correct answer

 

[Greetings]

Who: Mao Zedong (first leader of the People's Republic of China)

Why: He completely changed China, the most populous country on earth.

 

[Chivas Regal]

Who: Mao Zedong (first leader of the People's Republic of China)

Why: He completely changed China, the most populous country on earth.

Wow, good try, WRONG!

Think Global influence. Mao and China were secluded from the outside world.

 

[Sasha Jones]

I was going to say Bill Gates as well for the obvious reasons.
But now that you have mentioned the Wright brothers you have me thinking again.

It is a very tough call.

 

[Sansabelt]

Lenin

Based on Chivas' reply to train's post, I nominate Lenin as well.

He reshaped Russia and made communism a potent global force. In his short career in power, from 1917 until 1924, Lenin created a model not merely for his successor, Stalin, but for Mao, for Hitler, for Pol Pot. Without Lenin, no Hitler or Mao. Plus, he was a lawyer .

Cheers

Slackman

 

[ohioguy]

Who: Henry Ford

Why: Made cars affordable to the average person, revolutionized industrial mass production, invented the dealer/franchise system, etc.

I don’t agree with his racist social attitudes or his questionable politics, but now cars are everywhere, and millions of people depend on them every single day.

 

[Perry Mason]

I think I can make a pretty strong case for Mikhail Gorbachev. His glasnost completely changed the political dynamics and power balance of the world.

I can make an equally strong case for Ayatollah Khomeini. He, singlehandedly, lit the fires of Islamic fanaticism – and we now know how that has affected all our lives.

But I really think it was Alan Turing, the inventor of the modern computer.

Nevertheless, Chivas, I think your response is "none of them." Your choice will be much more enigmatic... depending. of course, on what you're smoking these days.

Perry

 

[Cool Dude]

Good: Dr. Jonas Salk. Polio vaccine.

Bad: The french arline steward who is responsible for the introduction and initial spread of the HIV virus.

Still thinking if I'm wrong Chivas.

 

[Average Joe]

Adolph Hitler

He started the largest war the world has ever and hopefully will ever see. That war killed over 56 million people including over 21 million Russians and 11 million Chinese. This figure doesn't even include the estimated 6 million Jews killed as part of Hitler's final solution.

For better or worse, World War II caused an explosion of technological advances including jet aircraft that now fly us all over the world and rockets that have taken us to the moon and allow us to explore the other planets in our solar system. These and other inventions will probably have been invented anyway but the war effort accelerated their development.

After World War II the United Nations was formed to help us resolve the conficts that started two world wars in the first half of our century. The United Nations has succeeded where the League of Nations failed.

World War II also sparked the Cold War between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. which, while not beneficial to the world, did have a major influence for decades and still does as we clean up some of the messes left over from that era (Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, Korea, Cuba).

Some good but mostly bad, Hitler's influence shaped more than half of the 20th century.