in 500 years who will be remembered from the 20th

[JBcat]

It will be interesting to see if any athletes will be remembered.  We don't have much to go in the past since professional leagues have only really been around the last 100 years or so.  If I had to pick one athlete though it would be Tiger Woods.   

[blackbird]

I can think of one man still alive today who can legitimately claim to have fundamentally changed the world.

Timothy Berners-Lee, inventor of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). A true visionary, he gave his invention to the world as open-source, leading the way to the birth of the Worldwide Web.

The world is a completely different place than when I was a kid, mostly because of the web. He gets my vote.

[threats13]

The leaders of the democratic socialist party will be remembered simply because they believed in something the American media deemed EVIL when it was the obvious direction our government should have been moving in all along.  These people will probably come out of France or Great Britain and will forever make the world a better place.

[Fan from VT]

Re: Nickagenta's last post


I can't believe i forgot picasso. ouch. Dali and picasso will be remembered in art class.

I happen to think Bin Laden will be forgotten. Relatively minor in the scheme of actual harm done. I think the huge, sweeping genocides are remembered far longer than small attacks that are contextualized within a larger political framework.

[Fan from VT]

I don't think cultural or political iconic figures will be remembered. At the moment, even Gandhi's popularity has faded in India; he's more a cult of personality icon to the West than in South Asia. American leads like Washington, FDR, JFK, etc, are only as popular as the American century. Right now, every few, outside of history classes, remembers Cecil Rhodes of the British Empire, only the Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford lives on.

In a similar but alternative vein, the Beatles will only be remembered if rock 'n roll somehow *dies* but then is resurrected in the 22th century by a new generation using the Beatles as a type of Buddha-figurehead. In effect, that's what happened to both Christianity and Buddhism where it took some political capacity, a couple of centuries afterwards, for both of them to become household religions for much of the world. If Rock continues and melds into a series of worldwide musical genres than the Beatles will fade into a footnote for a music history class.

I think the beatles could easily be remembered as the names of Handel, Brahms, Bach, Mozart, and Bethoven are thrown around.

[hwangjini_1]

Hitler, Einstein, Gandhi.

Probably in that order too.

EDIT:  Interesting sub-topic.  Who from the 20th/21st century will be seen as much greater in the future then they were in the present?  Kind of like how artists and philosophers get more famous after they die.

good thread.

i agree with fwf's nominations above, but would add either lenin or che.

US folks usually dont like to think about them, but the rest of the world does.

[CbrewEra]

No ones said 'Toine yet? seems to be a never ending thing round here

[cdif911]

It will be interesting to see if any athletes will be remembered.  We don't have much to go in the past since professional leagues have only really been around the last 100 years or so.  If I had to pick one athlete though it would be Tiger Woods.   

random, I'm prepping for US history II and in one of the chronologies in the book, the invention of basketball is listed as a significant event

[nickagneta]

Re: Nickagenta's last post


I can't believe i forgot picasso. ouch. Dali and picasso will be remembered in art class.

I happen to think Bin Laden will be forgotten. Relatively minor in the scheme of actual harm done. I think the huge, sweeping genocides are remembered far longer than small attacks that are contextualized within a larger political framework.

The reason I listed Osama is because I believe he could eventually be the historical figurehead of the West vs. Islamic extremism war that could go on for decades and could be memorable for possibly the largest single act of murder ever, if an extremist group ever detonates a nuclear weapon in a major city.

I pray it never happens but in my heart I believe it probably will happen and will be traced back to Bin Laden's influences.

[houseonfire09]

Great topic.  I could argue about this all day.  If I had money and a time machine, I'm willing to bet on Elvis, Frank Sinatra and maybe Kurt Cobain as a shot in the dark in music. As for politics, I think we will know who the Kennedys were 500 years from now because they had so much influence in US politics through much of the century.  Surprised those haven't been mentioned yet.  What TV shows and movies would people remember 500 years from now?

[budMovin]

Earth ends in 2012.

[BoundingRounder]

I take it you mean, in addition to "Myself"...correct?...

[davemonsterband]

DaVinci, Napoleon, Walter McCarty, Eistein, Lenin, Galileo, Hitler, Churchill...in no particular order. The American propaganda in this thread is a little biased.

Artists aren't important people, inventors and world leaders are. And Wal-tah.

[cdif911]

DaVinci, Napoleon, Walter McCarty, Eistein, Lenin, Galileo, Hitler, Churchill...in no particular order.

umm last I checked not all of those guys are from the 20th century...

interesting side note, very few women mentioned overall in this thread..

[davemonsterband]

DaVinci, Napoleon, Walter McCarty, Eistein, Lenin, Galileo, Hitler, Churchill...in no particular order.

umm last I checked not all of those guys are from the 20th century...

interesting side note, very few women mentioned overall in this thread..

My bad, I thought it was of the last 500 years.