the greatest personality's of the past 100 years?

[[KMA]Avenger]

i'll choose 3 men from the past 100 years as my greatest and tell you why. i would like to see who guys pick.
though i have picked men, this discussion is by no means exclusive to the male of the species, and is not limited to how many you want to nominate.

so here's my 3:

JFK, because he found out what was going on and wanted to put an end to the madness and was in all likelihood, the last great leader of the western world.

Dr. Martin Luther king: a very knowledgeable and kind man who only spoke the truth, i would dearly have liked to speak with him, like JFK a true giant of a man in both intellect and honesty.

Nikola Tesla: probably THE greatest scientist/inventor in history. this man died in poverty but he invented the wireless radio. Marconi holds the record but it was proved in court that Tesla held the patents for the wireless radio BEFORE Marconi. Tesla also invented AC electricity, the florescent light bulb, envisioned the internet before computers even existed, discovered how to transfer electricity wirelessly, and even found out how to draw free electricity for all mankind from the upper atmosphere.
this great man was at least 100 years ahead of his time and held nearly 700 patents...a true genius if ever there was 1.

[Melisandre]

Personalities?

Adolf Hitler
- skilled orator, engineering, strategical and tactical wunderkind, political heavy-weight and tremendously evil.
- If morality objects against considering him a "great personality", re-read Nietzsche, and in particular realise who conceived the most evil of Hitler's crimes.

Karl Rove
- political heavy-weight, skilled orator and guide, strategical wunderkind, master of evasion.
- See above, second remark.

Dan Brown
- Exposing all conspiracy theories for what they are.. the raving rantings of lunatics, made into even more fictitious stories by those who are afraid of the reality that the world is indeed as boring as it looks.




Concerning Tesla; another lunatic. Once great, sure, but all the latter, unproven hypotheses he 'wrote' are just that.. unproven hypotheses. Considering Tesla at the same level as Newton, Franklin or Edison is a blatant insult to the greatness and the legacy of those three.

I look forward to further great personalities appearing.

(Adding my own shortlist:)
Ayn Rand
Henry Ford
Albert Einstein
Andrei Sakharov
Frank Sinatra

[Kit-Fox]

I dunno know really Universe, Tesla provided us with some great ideas & insights during his life. Is it really fair to poo-poo him because of his latter day failings?

[[KMA]Avenger]

Universe, have you ever considered the possibility that you are as mad as your 1st great personality?

[Juliette]

I dunno know really Universe, Tesla provided us with some great ideas & insights during his life. Is it really fair to poo-poo him becuase of his latter day failings?

No.. that's indeed quite unfair.
My personal 'hero' of all time got a little ga-ga in the end too, so as not to be a hypocrite, I'll lay off Tesla.
But the perpetuum mobile and free energy are fantasy.

@ Avenger: Should I have said "in no particular order"? Anyway, you ask for great personalities. You didn't ask for Heroes of Humanity.
But your .. lightheartedness and politeness .. is refreshing.

[[KMA]Avenger]

i was simply asking if you was as mad as him and not referring to the order you placed them in.

i assumed people would use some common sense when posting their nominations. next time i will be more precise so people don't start listing evil genocidal megalomaniacs and call them "Great personality's".

as for Dan Brown..please don't make me laugh, i've just had an operation on my eye and have been told by the docs not to put undue pressure on it by heavy lifting and laughing.

[Kit-Fox]

Be fair KMA, some of the worst leaders in history have done great things.

Doing great things and being a great person doesnt go hand in hand with bee a paragon of truth, beauty & justice you know.

[[KMA]Avenger]

very true, but i would think that Hitler would be a no-no on everyone's "great personality's list", but then again, i really shouldn't be surprised he was on her list, after all, Universe agrees with the elite in wiping out the vast majority of the worlds populace.

[Kit-Fox]

Why? Hitler provided the world with the Beetle and gave VW an existance.

It was a small affordable car for the everday german.

How is the beetle a bad or evil thing? and remember without hitler its unlikely we would have had them

[[KMA]Avenger]

are you saying the world would be diminished if it were not for VW and the Beetle?

[RepliMagni]

i assumed people would use some common sense when posting their nominations. next time i will be more precise so people don't start listing evil genocidal megalomaniacs and call them "Great personality's".

Definition of personality from the OED:

personality
• noun (pl. personalities) 1 the characteristics or qualities that form an individual’s character. 2 qualities that make someone interesting or popular. 3 a celebrity.

When matched against that criteria, Hitler is almost certainly the greatest personality of the last century, if not, of all time. He is the most notorious man in history: a saviour to some, the personification of evil to others.

I'll come up with a few when I get some time

[Kit-Fox]

are you saying the world would be diminished if it were not for VW and the Beetle?

Yes, the beetle has proven to be a good affordable workhorse in countries where the majority have very little money with which to afford motorised transport.

It was cheap to buy & run and easy to service and keep on the road, it was one of the democratising forces of motorised transport.

[[KMA]Avenger]

sighs...

do i REALLY have to be so precise in what i say that people wont have to engage their brains and think for themselves?!?!

[RepliMagni]

sighs...

do i REALLY have to be so precise in what i say that people wont have to engage their brains and think for themselves?!?!

Don't get tetchy. If you want a thread about "greatest heroes" then make one about that, don't complain just because you don't know the full connotations of what you're asking for.

[semper]

pft.. no way you can for just 3!

Joseph Stalin - his doctors were too afraid to operate on him, he was a sycho, the greatest mass murderer of our time.. and he trained to be a priest for five years!.

Adolf Hitler - what he did for germany, what he did to europe and the jews. He has left an echo in time that will last for hundreds.. if not thousands of year to come..

Nevil Chamberlin - His policiy of appeasement amuses me greatly.

Pavlov - Classical Conditioning is a very important finding.

Albert Einstein - speaks for himself.

Himmler - the guy who actually thought up the idea of the holocaust. MUST have been an interesting personality.

Rasputin - manipulated the russian Tsar, supposedly had many many lovers a day.. and was very very difficult to kill. Fantastic!

George Lucas - guy wrote, directed and created one of the most influential/greatest media franchises of all time, equal too if not exceeding the world created by JRR Tolkein. Also wrote and created Indiana Jones.. and I love Indy!

Steven Spieldberg - an impeccable director, I have never stopped hearing his name attached to positive remarks. Cannot ignore him being a great personality.

Alfred Hitchcock - same as the Berg!

Margaret Thatcher - Massively influential and powerful within the UK. She did a great deal of good, as well as a bit of bad! First female priminister and probably the greatest/well known female leader since Cleopatra!

Bill Clinton - guy had an amazing affair that made a lot of news. However he did a great deal of good for the US who have a great tie to the rest of the world. Ergo.. he did a lot of good for the world as a whole.

Winston Churchill - lead england to victory over Germany with the help of the US. Can be partly accredited to saving the known world.

Steven Hawking - smartest man in the world at current, made a lot of contributions to the current systems in physics. Created a machine that reads his eye language!

Ludwig Van Wittgenstein - A man who destroyed our understanding of language, and in my opinion revolutionised philosophy and our understanding of things as a whole.

Thomas Edison - American Inventor that created a lot of useful things!

Alan Turning - created computers!!!!

Sigmund Freud - the father of psychiatry and many other interesting psychological theories!

Nikola Tesla - I would agree that he made notable contributions to the world, enough to be recognised!

Oscar Wilde - the man was amazing! His works never fail to entertain.

Al Capone - legendary gangster, murdered a lot of people on valentines day. not really that great.. but very interesting!

They're all I can think of off the top of my head right now.. but I would have loved to have included..

Friedrich Nietzsche and Alfred Nobel..alas they were not of the last 100 years!

EDIT: I noticed Avengers mistake too (with regards to personalities, as lets be honest.. I didn't know any of these guys to make that call! At the same time though.. personality would have had an amazing contribution into their inputs to the world!), but I ignored his stupidity as I knew what he was meaning...