Greatest Social Impact

MrBishop

MrBishop

Well-Known Member
Which of the last century's social leaders would you say had the largest impacts on todays world as we know it? (positive or negative)

Ghandi
Dr. Martin Luther King jr.
Susan B. Anthony
Adolf Hitler
Nelson Mandella
Lenin
Ho Chi Minh
Freud
Einstein

etc etc...
 
I think I'd have to go with Hitler. Looking back at the 20th, it's pretty easy to argue that WW2 was the crucial turning point, economically, technologically, scientifically, politically, etc., and he was the driving force behind that conflict. Thanks to Japan jumping in, the effects reached to the far east, and were not a strictly western phenomenon. It was truly the beginning of the globalization (and global conflict) which so strongly shaped the second half of that century.
 
Henry Ford would be in the top 5, as well. Massive changes in tranportation, manufacturing, sociallization, etc. due both to his decision to make cars affordable and to do so through use of the assembly line.
 
HomeLAN said:
Henry Ford would be in the top 5, as well. Massive changes in tranportation, manufacturing, sociallization, etc. due both to his decision to make cars affordable and to do so through use of the assembly line.
Click to expand...

If there's one person I'd like to see blotted out of history, that's him. Turned skilled labour into machine monkeys and drones.


Marc, ask someone which they've had more recently, a Swanson's frozen dinner, or a Bic Mac.
 
Professur said:
If there's one person I'd like to see blotted out of history, that's him. Turned skilled labour into machine monkeys and drones.
Click to expand...

Perhaps so, but you can't deny the impact. It's not as if Hitler was a role model, either.
 
Women's sufferagen isn't talked about daily either now, but it did have a social impact. TV dinners were a precursor for the decline of the family-dinner. instead of sitting around the table and discussing the day's events...people would congregate around the boob-tube, eat as fast as they could and not talk to each other for hours on end...while 'being entertained' instead of being entertaining.

Do you consider the popularity of fast food as having that huge of a social impact?
 
MrBishop said:
Women's sufferagen isn't talked about daily either now, but it did have a social impact. TV dinners were a precursor for the decline of the family-dinner. instead of sitting around the table and discussing the day's events...people would congregate around the boob-tube, eat as fast as they could and not talk to each other for hours on end...while 'being entertained' instead of being entertaining.

Do you consider the popularity of fast food as having that huge of a social impact?
Click to expand...

Odd that you'd phrase it that way. It's hard to tell wether it's a cause, or a symptom of the disease, isn't it. But then, TV dinners could be looked at as just a symptom caused by the infiltration of TV into the home.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top