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Greatest men of culture and intelligence you adore

Rainman05 said:
Men as in Mankind. Humans. God dammit. stop being so literal.
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then from now on always say "women" and "womenkind" and we'll assume you also mean men and mankind ... (or you can try "Greatest men and women -- or people -- of culture and intelligence") ...
 
windowdressing said:
then from now on always say "women" and "womenkind" and we'll assume you also mean men and mankind ... (or you can try "Greatest men and women -- or people -- of culture and intelligence") ...
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Since the beginning of time, there was no problem with humanity being also called mankind.

I'm not about to indulge you in a discussion about this issue and I don't indulge radicals. It's a non-issue.
 
Rainman05 said:
Since the beginning of time, there was no problem with humanity being also called mankind.

I'm not about to indulge you in a discussion about this issue and I don't indulge radicals. It's a non-issue.
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that's the point Rainman ... it's a man's world ... a patriarchal world ... for much of human history women have been the property of men ... that's what we've been trying to change ... yes, it is an issue ESPECIALLY FOR WOMEN (you and I have male privilege) and it's less of an issue now because women and their allies rose up to challenge their oppression and the language we use is part of that struggle ... but I also noticed that no one was nasty about it ... you just got very defensive immediately ... you have some personal issues you have to resolve, and a good start would be to open your mind some ...
 
Please, please don't tell me you buy into that whole feminist crap. I'm not about to go round for round again to disprove the idiocy of modern feminism.
 
Rainman05 said:
Please, please don't tell me you buy into that whole feminist crap. I'm not about to go round for round again to disprove the idiocy of modern feminism.
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no desire to go round and round with you ... I'll leave you to chase your tail .. I just felt I had a civic responsibility to try to educate you .. when you finally realize that it's not likely that you will catch your tail or if you do and you then have to ask yourself: "Now what?", come see me ...
 
John Adams - Without him the movment and effort for independence fall apart.

Earl Warren - SCOTUS chief Justice 1953 to 1969, the number of landmark civil rights cases he presided over is unparalleled, and his court worked on a whole lot other than civil rights.

Julius Robert Oppenheimer - BOOM!
 
Rainman05 said:
Since the beginning of time, there was no problem with humanity being also called mankind.

I'm not about to indulge you in a discussion about this issue and I don't indulge radicals. It's a non-issue.
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mankind and men are two different words. If you asked for the greatest men, it would be assumed you were talking about only males. I believe being Romanian, English may not be your first language, so I wont be too harsh
 
Rich Uncle Pennybags, Bazooka Joe, and Mr Peanut
 
Thomas Jefferson, maybe Thomas Paine, Ben Franklin, MLK Jr., maybe Robert E. Lee, possibly James Madison, possibly John Paul Jones, possibly Teddy Roosevelt, Frederick Douglass

Abigail Adams for her gentle guidance of John Adams and maybe Elenor Roosevelt, as well, maybe Harriet Tubman, Clara Barton, maybe Mary Harris "Mother" Jones

Thomas Edison, maybe the Wright Brothers, Grace Hopper, Henry Ford, maybe George Eastman, maybe Alexander Graham Bell, possible the Woz, Andrew Carnegie, Enrico Fermi & Oppenheimer, maybe James Watson adn Francis Crick.

Louis Armstrong, Charlie Christian and Benny Goodman, Miles Davis, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Bo Diddley, possibly the Chess brothers.

EA Poe, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, Twain/Clemmens, maybe Emily Dickenson. Frank Lloyd Wrigt, HD Thoreau

Nelly Bly, Jacob Riis, Lewis Hine

Plenty more. That's all I can think of right now.
 
Peter Griffin, Homer Simpson and Hillary Clinton
 
Rene Descartes

Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier

Nicola Tesla
 
Lukas105 said:
Carl Segan. - The man speaks how mankind can change for the better, and how leaving this Earth and colonizing others planets is the best way to evolve the human species into "Homo Novus" (New Man) as I call it.
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HE was our graduation day speaker. It was Awful. He was a great scholar but that speech sucked. He appeared stoned


I tend not to have many idols or heroes.

in terms of entertainers, I loved Jerry Garcia's music and that of Jimmy Page.

Athletes-Mikael Applegren because I roomed with him at the US Open years ago and he made me look good when we played and Darrell Pace, the most dominant athlete in the 76 and 84 Olympics and a nice guy as well

politicians-cannot think of any

writers-Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote some good stuff-then again so did Jerry Ahern and William Johnstone
 
The study of history makes it difficult. Most great men have great flaws.

Pre 20th Century:
Abraham Lincoln.
Thomas Jefferson.

20th Century:
Calvin Coolidge.
Martin Luther King Jr.
 
cpwill said:
The study of history makes it difficult. Most great men have great flaws.

Pre 20th Century:
Abraham Lincoln.
Thomas Jefferson.

20th Century:
Calvin Coolidge.
Martin Luther King Jr.
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Calvin Coolidge was at a dinner party and a slightly inebriated debutante told him she had bet another member of the party that she could get him to say at least three words to her

He said




YOU LOSE!
 
Rainman05 said:
1. Nicola Tesla... we wouldn't have modern society without his discoveries and inventions. Notably, alternative current.
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While I'm not going to tell you who you should or shouldn't admire, or whose philosophy to follow or whose music was the greatest, or whose poetry the most inspiring, on the facts, this is just not true.
 
Christopher Hitchens

Nelson Mandela

Thomas Jefferson

James Madison

Henry David Thoreau

Charles Darwin

George Orwell

Aldous Huxley

Chinua Achebe
 
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Three things?

1) Why only 'men'...why not women as well?

2) Adore? I 'adore' no one that I do not know personally.

3) Besides, I look up to no one. Everybody has some wisdom on something. And everyone is an idiot on most things. There are no 'great minds' to be admired., IMO. There are people that have great ideas. But no one is better then anyone else...just different.
Why people have this impulse to put people on pedestals baffles me. All my pedestals are empty.
 
I've always been a pretty big fan of Carl Gauss. Brilliant mathematician. Literally help every branch of existing mathematics when he was alive.

Always thought Ronald Coase was under appreciated as an economist. His ideas of transaction costs IMO are more important than the Coase theorem.

As far as culture goes I did thoroughly enjoy Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Definitely won't be the last book of his I read. Unfortunately, I'm not super cultured. I only really like very cultured movies, books, and video games (yes these exist, yes this counts). Art and poetry put me too sleep. I also haven't seen/read as many of these movies and books as I wish I had.
 
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