Part 1: 100 Most Influential Rankings

[vcczar]

@vcczar @ShortKing @WVProgressive @ConservativeElector2 @mark2 @jnewt @Mark_W @OrangeP47 @Arkansas Progressive @A man from Colorado @SilentLiberty @Rodja @DakotaHale @jvikings1 @themiddlepolitical @Edouard @Vols21 @Timur

Here's the 1st part of the 100 most influential rankings. 

Rules:

- Please keep discussion on topic. 

- No trolling. 

- No complaining, although constructive criticism is okay. 

- No personal attacks.

- No commenting without voting. 

Candidates in this poll: 

Abraham Lincoln	Prevented the breakup of the United States with stellar leadership during the Civil War. Laid the foundation for the abolition of slavery in the United States. Centralized the United States, which made America’s dominance in the 20th century possible. Injected Federal power into the daily lives of its citizens via homestead acts, education land grant acts, etc; first Republican president.
Adam and Eve	Whether biblical Adam Eve or the hypothetical DNA common ancestors, Mitochondrial Eve and Y-Chromosmal Adam, they are the most recent common ancestors of all living human beings.
Adam Smith	Laid the foundation of free market economic theory with his book, Wealth of Nations; "Father of Economics" and "Father of Capitalism."
Adolf Hitler	initiated World War II and created the holocaust. WWII led to a weaker, more peaceful Europe. The holocaust led to the creation Israel. Hitler’s Nazism is often used as an example to misrepresent both nationalistic conservatives ideologies and Socialism. Indirectly led to European Union, and United Nations. Synonym for evil and authoratarian rule or tendencies.
Aeschylus	Considered the "Father of Tragedy" for his plays, which are among the earliest surviving tragedy plays.
Akbar	Laid the foundations of a multi-cultural state in the Indian subcontinent.
Albert Einstein	His theory of relativity is one of the pillars of modern Physics, which reconciled Newtonian Mechanics with the latest scientific discoveries; wrote the most famous equation; alerted FDR that Nazis were building an Atom bomb, and that US should make one first; pop culture icon whose surname is synonmous with "genius"
Alec Jeffreys	Invented DNA fingerprinting for forensics
Alessandro Volta	Invented the electric battery and discovered methane; the "volt" is named after him.
Alexander Fleming	Discovered penicillin, which made many highly deadly infections into treatable infections.

[OrangeP47]

I will explain my decision by saying who I left out, as I voted for most of the people and I feel as if the reasons for inclusion are generally obvious.  Obviously everyone is important, but the ones I left out were the ones I felt don't meet a "generous defintion".

Aeschylus - I feel as if from a modern perspective, he's too niche.  He's probably important to literature/performing arts, but I feel as if the average person would have no connection to him.

Alec Jeffreys - I feel as if his technology is too new/still controversal.  Maybe he belongs, but I feel as if you'd need to ask me in 2122 not 2022 to make the final call, and on the balance I'm not ready to put him in the "in" group.

[Edouard]

I only voted for Smith, Hitler, Ackbar and Volta

Hitler with his life caused the world to change forever. The world post 1945 has been built against the rise of someone like him, and International Organizations just like liberal democraties have been strenghtened to never repeat this past. He caused millions of deaths and WW2 definitively changed international relationships as well as a technological and social jump into tolerance after 1945. He is probably one of the most evil man who ever lived and there are good reasons why 60/70 years later countries still live in the fear of political extremism and fascism.

Volta for the consequences of electricity on the economy and the world, it definitively changed a lot of things.

Edited July 19, 2022 by Edouard

[Arkansas Progressive]

Volta - for electricity
Einstien - for 3D Space-Time
Adam and Eve - even without Biblical connotations, progenitors of humanity. Also lots of Renaissance Arts
Hitler - the new strawman for evil, culturally recognizable and shaped a lot of things
Flemming - Penicillin is something the modern pharmaceutical industry and modern virus fighting sciences use
Smith - even if I don't like capitalism, he did influence modern society

Close 2nds
Lincoln - was originally one of my picks but Edouard's argument regarding Lincoln's impact only upon the United States, had me deselect him

Not considered
Akbar - personally there's others like him
Aeschylus - greek tragedy was important, but there are others who could be seen as more influential
Jeffrey's - honestly didn't even know who he was until I read the bio lol.

[vcczar]

My inclusion of Lincoln is primarily because I don't think the US would be the major superpower today had the nation split in two. I did consider leaving him off, but I thought, "I could see him ending up around 97th overall or something." Thus, I kept him in. 

[A man from Colorado]

I bet there are thousands of monarchs who are infinitely more important than whoever Aeschylus was.

[OrangeP47]

Yeah I'm also just gonna clarify I'm voting for the scientific idea of Adam and Eve not the biblical idea of Adam and Eve, though one can argue the science says there's not an Adam and Eve too.

[A man from Colorado]

Alexander the great and Caesar Augustus are both infinitely more important, and well-known than some Greek playwright. 

[OrangeP47]

Guys, nobody voted for him, and he's been dead millennia, we don't need to trash the poor man 🤣

[A man from Colorado]

Just now, OrangeP47 said:

Guys, nobody voted for him, and he's been dead millennia, we don't need to trash the poor man 🤣

Everyone on this list List of ancient Greek philosophers - Wikipedia is also probably more important than him.

[vcczar]

8 minutes ago, OrangeP47 said:

Yeah I'm also just gonna clarify I'm voting for the scientific idea of Adam and Eve not the biblical idea of Adam and Eve, though one can argue the science says there's not an Adam and Eve too.

I considered writing this as Y-Chromosomal Adam and Mitochondrial Eve --  basically the common ancestors of all humans on earth today. 

[A man from Colorado]

2 minutes ago, Patine said:

Note that he's called, "the Father of Tragedy." I believe he pioneered the formula of plays called tragedies, later revived in by Shakespeare and his contemporaries in the Elizabethan Era, and even underpinning, at a thematic level of motif, A LOT of Western fiction media up till to the modern day. There's more to life and history than war and politics (thankfully!).

The two men I mentioned shaped the politics of our world for better or for worse. Also you want to go down that path, why is not a singular ancient greek philosopher on this vote? They are the literal foundations of modern philosophy. 

[Pringles]

I know I didn't select yes but it was a joke. Anyways. Just voted. I'll elaborate when I'm off work. However I largely agree with @Edouard' s points. 

[ShortKing]

Vcczar's point is basically why I voted for Lincoln, which I thought more folks would. The US is undoubtedly in a position unrivaled in history in terms of economic power, cultural influence, and military might, along with the ability to project that power into any corner of the world. Very few people can claim they were integral to getting us to that place, but Lincoln holding the country together when the nation was riven by a civil war is certainly one of them. Not to mention, he is the standard when we think of greatest US President, and one that almost every modern President aspires to emulate. 

[Timur]

On 5/16/2022 at 9:30 PM, Patine said:

FDR seems to fill this iconic role for me, all things considered, although I do concede he pushed the superpower identity even more Imminently closer to the envelope (the term, itself, was probably first coined about a decade after his death for both the U.S. and USSR). The U.S. still remained very isolationist and parochial, politically and militarily, for about 35 years after Lincoln (until McKinley and the Spanish-American War, really).

Historians do place him in second place.