The Most Influential Person of the 20th Century

[ac_nex]

When it comes to most influencial, I would say its the person who has been mentioned most, either by media or at schools. I agree with matthyaouw that unfortunately, bad people are the most influentical, like say Hitler, terrorists, etc.

 

[loseyourname]

Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. They invented the modern tech company and corporate culture, especially the open-door policies, company picnics and leadership building seminars. Plus HP was the company to popularize the computerized instrument panel and eventually the personal computer. They were also probably the first company to ever be built up from scratch by college buddies developing most of their own technology, a legacy continued by many industry pioneers since. I know the business world doesn't get credit for its influence the way the political world does, but I think it arguably has just as much of an impact. Heck, even Ray Kroc deserves serious consideration for this title. Not only did franchising revolutionize the way business expanded and allow for the modern phenomena of huge chains of retail outlets, but McDonald's has become synonymous with modern consumer culture and emblematic of westernization and globalization.

 

[loseyourname]

Also, don't let us forget Sigmund Freud. The man completely changed the way the human person looks at himself, even if he was mostly wrong. He had probably the greatest influence of any single person on the formation of popular culture in the 20th century.

 

[ShawnD]

Your argument for HP reminds me of Edward Deming, the inventor of Total Quality Management. The general idea was to monitor every step of the process along the way rather than just testing the end product. Things made using TCM are much higher quality than those made without.
Classic example is how Japanese cars very quickly became a threat to American car companies. The Japanese car companies adopted TCM before American companies did, and because of this, Japanese cars were much better than American cars for quite a while. Today, the difference between Japanese and US cars is arguable, but back in the 70s and 80s there was just no comparison.

 

[fourier jr]

that reminds me, who were the US supreme court judges who decided that corporations were legal persons? if that happened in the 20th century i would say that could possibly be the most influential event of the century, involving the most influential people.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I was going to say Joseph C. Gayetty, but he was a little early.

Edison?

 

[DaveC426913]

I'm with Hitler too.

While (for example) Freud advanced our knowledge and changed the way we think, he did not actually bring about the alteration of the course of civilization. If Freud magically never existed, I'm pretty sure most of the world would still have the same jobs and would still be alive or dead. If Hitler magically never existed, our world (and much of the things in it that many of us rely on that came directly or indirectly from the war) would be radically different. (Oh, and whole lineages would still be alive.)

 

[moose]

I would say Stalin or Truman... The cold war really influenced the last 50 years of the 20th century...

I don't think Hitler influenced the world that much over the years really...

EDIT: Ivan just mentioned Edison, and this is a good candidate too!

EDIT2: I guess the cold war is also because of communism, so...

EDIT3: If you look even further back in time, you can see that without some people, the world would be drastically different...

 

[Smurf]

I'm still rejecting Hitler. He was but one of several major players in every event he is credited with "influencing". As pointed out by ShawnD, Gavrilo Princip alone was more influencial than Hitler and he only lived a few days after WW1.

I'm sticking with Roosevelt. Or George Kennan (who died this year, btw).

 

[Smurf]

If Freud magically never existed, I'm pretty sure most of the world would still have the same jobs

Except for... you know... the millions upon millions of people who either are psychotherapists or who's lives had been sufficiently altered by one.

 

[laminatedevildoll]

Before this whole thread, I thought influential was meant to be something positive, but I guess that's a one-sided view of that concept. I guess the word 'influential' can be interpreted in any way... it is not limited to only positive influence.

I have noticed that Hitler was mentioned several times. I guess he did change people lives, but to say that 'Hitler was the most influential person of the 20th century' is sort of interesting. I guess mass executions really influence the world. Man, I still cannot believe what he did.

Anyway, I have compiled a list of all the names that were mentioned in this thread so far.

Hitler
Stalin
Friedrich Hayek
Keynes
Einstein
Al Gore
Mahatma Gandhi
Alfred Nobel
Hilbert
Einhold Aman
Rosa parks
Alan Turing
Harry Truman
Bohr
Schrödinger
Schottky
Shokley
Braittain
Bardeen
Kilby
Atalla
Bill Gates
Alexander Fleming
Charlie Chaplin
Tank Man
Nelson Mandela
Sun Yat Sen
Jesus
Lord Buddha
Tim Berners-Lee
Karl Marx
Lenin
Michael Jackson
Walt Disney
Wright Brothers
Marconi
Nikola Tesla
Michael "Gorbi" Gorbatschow
Georges Clemenceau
Archduke Ferdinand
Gavrilo Princip
Bill Hewlett
David Packard
Ray Kroc
Sigmund Freud
Edward Deming
Edison
Roosevelt
George Kennan

This is a really hard decision. I would appreciate if everyone would pick their top three candidates. So far, Einstein and Hitler (Good vs. Evil) are the most popular, I guess.

Thank you.

 

[moose]

Stalin did kill more people than Hitler, but whatever.

I think that the top three from that list are
-Edison
-Einstein
-Stalin
and if I had to have a fourth, it would be Bardeen

 

[Hypnos]

My top 3: Hayek, Einstein, Wright brothers

 

[Smurf]

Hayek is outclassed by Keynes easily.

My top three:
-Roosevelt
-Keynes
-George Kennan

 

[marlon]

Tim Berners-Lee, someone that had enormous impact on the very end of the 20th century and that would be interesting to write about. He invented the World Wide Web while working at Cern.

Auww, that hurts EVO.

You are forgetting the fact that Lee did NOT work alone on this. He collaborated with a Belgian guy who graduated from the same university i did.

Here is the proof http://robert.cailliau.free.fr/ByLetter/M/Me/Welcome.html

marlon, who likes promoting his own country

 

[marlon]

I don't buy that, you can't give all of that credit to Hitler.

and without Hitler, we would not have had the "Volkswagen"

marlon

 

[Andre]

And with all that climate change going on, you could expect me to nominate the inventor of the greenhouse gas effect, Svante Arrhenius who published at the turn of the 20th century.

And about Hitler, actually Emperor Hirohito of Japan covered at least as much area as Hitler and had the guts or stupidy to attack the US in Hawaï, changing the cause of the war. Why should he get less credit?

Actually choosing from that list should focus on the difference a single man made to change things and or if others were about to accomplish the same. For instance if it wasn't for Joseph Stalin, would the USSR really have turned into the "empire of evil", occupying a lot more territory a lot longer as Hitler ever did?

 

[ShawnD]

I guess mass executions really influence the world.

Mass killings are not as well remembered as you would like to think. Please read the following paragraph slowly. Read it twice if you need to.

The Japanese massacre of other Asian countries was just overwhelming. Upwards of 20 million people died. Japan is responsible for the largest mass rape in human history; over 700,000 women raped, 90% of them were killed afterwards (google for "jugun ianfu"). Japan's medical experiments on Chinese people dwarfed the ones done in the Nazi camps (google for "Shiro Ishii" or "unit 731"). People were dissected while they were still alive, without any kind of sedation. Japan was the only country in WW2 to use biological weapons on civilians; this included the bubonic plague, anthrax, and cholera. Japan was also the only country to use chemical weapons. Japan's PoW camps were much worse than Germany's camps. Germany's PoW camps had a death rate of less than 5%, whereas Japanese PoW camps had a death rate of 30% or higher.

In the end, which country was remembered more? Germany or Japan?

 

[zoobyshoe]

Before this whole thread, I thought influential was meant to be something positive, but I guess that's a one-sided view of that concept. I guess the word 'influential' can be interpreted in any way... it is not limited to only positive influence.

Yes, it turns out the term "most influential person" is open to so many interpretations that it becomes an improper question. You have to rephrase it entirely if you are seeking people's opinion of "positive" influence, and you'll find that you'll have to create even more parameters from there to clarify the original intent of the question, like what sorts of things constitute "positive" influences.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

How could Hitler have waged war without light bulbs to light the maps?

 

[Smurf]

You know what. I'm going to change my answer to Gavrilo Princip. That guy's single action changed the entire century right from the beginning.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

You know what. I'm going to change my answer to Gavrilo Princip. That guy's single action changed the entire century right from the beginning.

I think that the outcome from his actions are really much more contingent on the actions and reactions of others. To be fair it's probably best to measure a person's "influence" by the virtue of more direct effects of that person's existence and actions rather than a butterfly effect.

 

[fourier jr]

what about fritz haber, as in haber process? i totally forgot about him, had to think way back to my chemistry days.

 

[DaveC426913]

Except for... you know... the millions upon millions of people who either are psychotherapists or who's lives had been sufficiently altered by one.

You are suggesting that if Freud hadn't been around, none of these pople would have taken an interest in exploring the human mind? Or that others who are troubled would have had no one to go to?

Certainly, Freud had a hugely dramatic impact *on* his discipline, but I can't say it wouldn't have existed or wouldn't have progressed without him.

 

[Kerrie]

Former President Reagan had a pretty good impact on the world in the latter part of the century. At least from my viewpoint anyhow, he began to melt the ice of the Cold War which eventually led to the breakdown of communism and the restructuring of many countries under the communist thumb.

 

[laminatedevildoll]

Mass killings are not as well remembered as you would like to think. Please read the following paragraph slowly. Read it twice if you need to.
The Japanese massacre of other Asian countries was just overwhelming. Upwards of 20 million people died. Japan is responsible for the largest mass rape in human history; over 700,000 women raped, 90% of them were killed afterwards (google for "jugun ianfu"). Japan's medical experiments on Chinese people dwarfed the ones done in the Nazi camps (google for "Shiro Ishii" or "unit 731"). People were dissected while they were still alive, without any kind of sedation. Japan was the only country in WW2 to use biological weapons on civilians; this included the bubonic plague, anthrax, and cholera. Japan was also the only country to use chemical weapons. Japan's PoW camps were much worse than Germany's camps. Germany's PoW camps had a death rate of less than 5%, whereas Japanese PoW camps had a death rate of 30% or higher.
In the end, which country was remembered more? Germany or Japan?

I guess Germany is remembered than Japan. Honestly, I didn't know that kind of thing took place in Japan... very disturbing.

 

[russ_watters]

I didn't see if anyone mentioned him already, but Wilson gets my vote. He is responsible for the UN, the Marshall plan, and the re-making of the geopolitical landscape of Europe in the 2nd half of the century. The EU owes it's existence to him. Yeah, Hitler started a war, but most of the impacts from him were secondary - ie, Stalin had more of a direct impact on the geopolitical landscape of Eastern Europe after WWII then Hitler did. Hitler was just the enabler for that - Stalin is the one who made it happen.

Evo's point about the Internet is a good one, but there were so many people involved that it's tough to pick one. And the Internet has nowhere near realized it's full potential yet, so that may be the answer to this question if we repost it in 50 years or so...

 

[laminatedevildoll]

There are so many 'influential' people to chose from. This is a very hard decision.

 

[EL]

What about Britney Spears?

 

[marlon]

and what about Thomas Edison ?

marlon

 

[laminatedevildoll]

and what about Thomas Edison ?
marlon

Maybe I will consider Edison instead of Spears.

 

[EL]

Maybe I will consider Edison instead of Spears.

Well, it's a tight race I would say. But at least we can agree on Britney being the winner of the 21st century?

 

[marlon]

Well, it's a tight race I would say. But at least we can agree on Britney being the winner of the 21st century?

No no, that's going to be Christina Aguilera
The most influential artist of the 20th century is either Marlon Brando (especially thanks to the "butter scene" in Last Tango in Paris or for his appearance in Over the Waterfront)or Luciano Pavarotti
GRANDE TENORISSIMO, BRAVO
marlon

 

[EL]

But if anoying animated animals counts, we certainly have a winner: Crazy Frog.

 

[ONJ's Noble Steed]

Hitler, I suppose; I think two or three of my great-grandfathers died in WWII.

 

[Smurf]

I didn't see if anyone mentioned him already, but Wilson gets my vote. He is responsible for the UN, the Marshall plan, and the re-making of the geopolitical landscape of Europe in the 2nd half of the century. The EU owes it's existence to him.

I'll buy that. Wilson did have a huge effect on US politics even after his death. (It could be argued that if it wasn't for Wilson then Roosevelt couldn't have gotten the US out of isolationism the second time)

 

[Smurf]

Certainly, Freud had a hugely dramatic impact *on* his discipline, but I can't say it wouldn't have existed or wouldn't have progressed without him.

You could say that about anyone. Redundant to the question of his influence.

 

[Skyhunter]

Now, surprisingly, nobody voted for the man who terminated the cold war single handedly, and ended up almost forgotten as shown here after three pages.
Michael "Gorbi" Gorbatschow

How about the man who started the reform of the CP Yuri Andropov.