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View Full Version : Name 5 people in History/Culture you admire and WHY



Mark in Oshawa
23rd April 2007, 08:13
I was thinking the other day while driving somewheres ( you have time to think when you drive 10 hours a day for a living) about people that you could say you admire or keep as inspiration. I was listening to an interview of a historian talking about Churchill and I thought of course that he is one my favourite and most inspirational people in history. So I wonder, with the multi-national board here ( one that is often hostile to one thing or the other, but pretty much an entertaining and intelligent group), just who are YOUR heroes? I would be stunned to know that a few of you might have someone you admire that wouldn't fit with what I think your political or social ethos might be. Or maybe not.......

Oh yes, keep religious icon's/leaders out of this, I know a Christian would say Christ, and a Muslim would Mohammed, that is logical enough. No, I want common men and women who for whatever reason stand above the crowd for something they did or said, or maybe are athletic heroes.

Ok, here are my 5 in no certain order, and notice they are from different walks of life and are all relevently modern.

ok. Winston Churchill. A great orator, jack of all trades, political chameleon and leader. Was he right all the time? God no, he made his share of stupid political moves, and tactical ones at times too. His snubbing of Ghandi in the post war era was an ignorant one from a man with foresight, but his own Victorian past kind of snuck on him there. I forgive him that for all the good things he did. What I admire about the guy is he stuck to his princples and convictions, even if he had to switch parties ( 3 times ) and he always stuck up for the common man.

Ghandi. A man who preached peace, breathed it, believed in it, and yet, wanted an indenpedent India. Using his methods, India basically was able to get their democracy started and going under peaceful terms from the UK. Now I realize it was more complicated than that, but if more ethnic tribal groups used Ghandi's quite resolve, and dedication to being forceful while using non-violent protest, the world would be a much better place.

Martin Luther King. This was a guy who wasn't perfect, had a lot of baggage in his personal life, yet by the way he led the civil rights movement in the US, he proved that America was out to lunch on racial policy and brought it kicking and screaming to a reality that they needed to have. He too preached non-violence, and many of his messages now sound like they come from a Christian Conservative in the US, which I find humourous for they are usually mocked by many on the left who in the next breath say what a great guy King was. While I am not big on religion mixing with secular politics, I admire King. The guy wanted what was logical and he brought it about.

Frederick Banting. For those who don't know, he invented Insulin with his staff at the University of Toronto in the 1920's. Diabetes was a huge killer before this, and he basically did the research on the side while teaching, created the vaccine and then once it was developed, he didn't even take out a patent for it. He felt the world should have access to the formula to make it and no one should profit by it. Noble idea....if modern medicine could just try a little more to emulate this, I suspect the health care costs of the western world would be cut in half tomorrow.....

Paul Newman. Now this one is a little more unusual, and he isn't really a historical figure like the others but there is a damned good reason for this. One, on the whole, I as rule despise Hollywood actors/actresses and their incessant bleating about how they feel they have all the answers to all problems and that the world is screwed up because we are not more like them. That said, when was the last time you heard Paul Newman utter a single word of political speech? You don't. We all have an idea on his politics, he is left-of-center and has been seen friendly with Democratic party candidates in the US, but for the most part, he doesn't act like we should KNOW his politics. This doesn't explain really though why I have him here. Why is that he put his money, and then a lot of money...like HUNDREDS of MILLIONS where his mouth is. Twenty years ago, it became very trendy for actors to dedicate their time to causes to raise money for charities. Paul did everyone one better. He created a company that sold salad dressing. Then Popcorn and Spaghetti sauces. Silly fool, didn't he know he couldn't compete with multinationals? Give all the profits to charity?He will lose his shirt right? WRONG. His company makes FAR more selling good quality product than he ever would acting. HE didn't brag about it, he just DID it. No sermons, no telling us how morally superior he is. Just DO IT. OH right..that is Nike, who gives tons of money to overpaid athletes.
No, Newman is another shining example of a man who just thinks outside the box, loves to give back to people who need it (terminally ill children and kids with cancer) and his causes are apolitical. The fact he is one hell of a race driver, HATES being famous (don't ever try to talk acting with him at the races or ask him for an autograph EVER) and will love to talk racing with you all day if you ever do get in his presence is a bonus. He proves that regardless of one's political views, you can be a good person, a good example for everyone, and be a class act. Damned good actor too, and like I said, I usually HATE actors.

Storm
23rd April 2007, 08:37
.
Ok, here are my 5 in no certain order, and notice they are from different walks of life and are all relevently modern.

Ghandi. A man who preached peace, breathed it, believed in it, and yet, wanted an indenpedent India.


Just a note..its spelt "Gandhi" and I have seen a lot of westerners spelling it the way you do which is plain wrong.

As for my list...don't know if there will be 5 but ok -

Chatrapati Shivaji - you will find his name in most public spaces of Mumbai now but he lived during the 1600s. He singlehandedly created a separate Maratha state when India was under the rule of the Moguls and the British were gaining a foothold. He had a vision and he fought bravely all his life to achieve it.

Churchill - For his great motivational and fighting abilities (with words)..yes he was not too keen on our independence but he did what was best for his country during the war.

Indira Gandhi - She did a lot of unethical things (but then she was a politician :s ) but she was the true Iron Lady...a woman with courage and a personality and more man than many other men. Sadly, assassinated while she was the PM.

JRD Tata - not really a historical figure as such but in the world of business he is revered. Self-made and with true determination, even in the era of British Raj and later in independent India established a behemoth which is the Tata empire today...Steel, automobiles, technology, software, even tea !! you name it and the Tatas are there.

gadjo_dilo
23rd April 2007, 11:59
-Leonardo da Vinci, a genius the world has never seen again so far. To quote Sigmund Freud : "Leonardo da Vinci was like a man who awoke too early in the darkness, while the others were all still asleep" .

-Charles Chaplin , because he needn't words to get us emotional and to convince: the sight and the gesture were enough. Because his eyes got a child candidness, a shadow of anxiety and the sadness of a wounded deer.
Because he did comedy with intelligence and mixed it with poetry.

-William Shakespeare - his plays have complicated plots and unforgetable characters and explore the greatness and deepness of human emotions. I find it amazing that an uneducated man who practised a social misjudged profession could have such knowledge of history, philosophy, law.

- I don't have any simpathy for historical/political guys but still I have a weakness for King Vlad Tepes ( the Impaler ) also known as Dracula. Despite his cruel " techiniques " of punishment he's the romanian symbol of fighting against thievery and corruption.

- After 4 famous guys it's time for an ordinary woman with an extraordinary biography. Her name is Elisabeta Rizea and she's a symbol of resistance against communism although I admit I hadn't knowledge of her until a few years ago. She was a peasant, a woman of a perfect simplicity but able to endure unbelieveble sufferings for her cause.

Brown, Jon Brow
23rd April 2007, 12:28
Milligan, Cleese, Everett........ Sessions.












Gervais ;)

LotusElise
23rd April 2007, 13:21
1. Another vote for Martin Luther King, who remained devoted to the principle of non-violence when many would have turned to the politics of revenge and separateness. Proved that the pen (or the tongue) really can be mightier than the sword (or the Colt 45).

2. Dorothy Garrod, a British archaeologist most active in the 1930s. She was one of the first researchers to find the "missing link" between hunter-gatherer and farming societies in the Near East, using evidence from the Mount Carmel area of modern Israel. Her work was debated and not wholly taken seriously for years, but is now accepted as common knowledge. This is my particular area of study in archaeology and she is a true inspiration to me.

3. Muriel Thompson, a very early British racing driver and World War I heroine. She first found fame racing at Brooklands in 1908 and then became a decorated war hero in the trenches, serving as an ambulance driver and medic. She was rewarded by the Belgian and British governments for her gallantry in rescuing fallen troops while under fire, sometimes outrunning machine gun rounds in her Cadillac rally car. She was resourceful, brave and compassionate towards others, while still having both feet on the ground.

4. Kay Petre, another Brooklands star, from the 1930s this time. A bit of a flippant choice, but she has been one of my biggest heroes for years, just because she is everything I'd quite like to be. She laughed in the face of sexism, was a great talent at the wheel of a car, bounced back from a horrendous injury to live into her nineties and is still fondly remembered by everyone still alive who knew her. Also, she was short like me (only 4'10") and it didn't stop her doing anything.

5. Ernest Rutherford, the physcist who came up with the modern explanation of atomic structure. I cannot imagine the depth and clarity of thought needed to imagine and test a theory of something that no-one has ever seen, and then to be able to explain it to the world like he did.

Rudy Tamasz
23rd April 2007, 13:25
1. Zianon Pazniak, the spiritual father of Belarusian independence.
2. Socrates, the greatest philosopher to never write a word and still make so much difference. His disciples Xenophon and Plato can make this list, too.
3. St. George, my patron saint.
4. Alexander the Great. He bridged the gaps between the peoples and cultures.
5. Ritchie Blackmore. Those who have ears would understand me.

Mark in Oshawa
23rd April 2007, 19:21
Interesting.....VERY interesting. My apolgies on the spelling of Gandhi. I have seen it spelt both ways, and figured I would be in trouble no matter what I did, so I went with a guess, and guessed wrong. No offense given to anyone in India. I admired what he did, but it is silly to not have the spelling correct.

Also Gadjo is very right on listing Da Vinci. I tended to look at people from the last century, but hey, he was a genius and worthy of any list of great men.

borderpatrolguy2007
23rd April 2007, 22:05
Ronald Reagan - Father of the modern Republican Party
General George S. Patton - leadership and military skills (wish he was around today).
Winston Churchill - Great Leader, orator.
Tony George - For creating the IRL. :p
Harry Truman - Great leader, President (it decades later for the country to realize it).

LeonBrooke
24th April 2007, 00:22
Hmmm...

Ernest Rutherford because, as LotusElise said, he discovered the atomic structure, and he's a New Zealander too :)

Fred Hollows - he developed a very simple and cheap cataract surgery that restores the sight of thousands of people in third-world nations, and he was a New Zealander as well ;)

Julius Vogel - former prime minister of New Zealand in the 1870s. He worked towards harmony between the government and Maori, worked towards suffrage for women successfully, and wrote a science fiction novel in which he pretty much exactly predicted future society.

Marie Curie - great works in chemistry and physics.

Temple Grandin - pioneering work for people with Autism spectrum disorder, from the point of view of one of them.

BDunnell
24th April 2007, 00:38
My answer to this question? No-one at all.

This is not to say that I am some sort of cultural desert, but rather that I refuse to put anyone on any sort of pedestal other than those I know. My friends are far more special to me than any prominent individuals past or present. There are of course people whose work, often in terms of performance, I appreciate, enjoy or admire, but it doesn't go any further than that. As flawed as everyone is to some extent, I know that I like my friends, and while (obviously!) none of them may have done anything along the lines of Martin Luther King or Gandhi or Churchill, I respect and have real affection for every one of them as a person. Therefore, I don't feel the need to have heroes or figures of respect from outside the ranks of people I actually know, because I am always uncertain as to whether I would really like or respect famous figures from the past or present if I got to know them. Genuine personal qualities rate far higher in my estimation than prominent achievements, no matter how noble they may be.

This may sound pompous, but my feelings in this regard are entirely genuine.

jso1985
24th April 2007, 00:56
Antonio Jose de Sucre - fought alongside Bolivar yet he still kept his ideals and didn't let Bolivar to influence him, also one of the few decent presidents Bolivia has had.

Manuel Marzana - Bolivia's true war hero

Tabare Vasquez(Uruguay's current president) - as odd as it may sounds, but I admire him for being man enough to stood agaisnt Bush AND Chavez.

Erwin Sanchez - just my football hero when I was a kid.

Karl Benz - alongside many other invertors I admire, he did the one I like the most, oh wait God created women right? :p :

Mark in Oshawa
24th April 2007, 03:44
Dunnell, be a sport. Surely to god there are figures in society of the last century or two that you would say are people you thought well of. We all love our friends and families, but there people in history that are great examples to all of us, and often they are people you wouldn't really always agree with. Notice most of my heroes are centerists or to the left of the spectrum, yet I consider myself a small c conservative with a libertarian streak on social policy. I still can admire people for standing up in a way that makes them outstanding examples.

As for you Borderpatrol guy, you had me until you put Tony George in there. THAT guy has messed up racing on this continent of the open wheeled variety and has said so many things that make me wonder if he is fit to run racing in any form. Great man, nice man, but seriously out to lunch on how racing works.....

Storm
24th April 2007, 09:20
5. Ritchie Blackmore. Those who have ears would understand me.

:up: :D

Galileo - He literally opened us to the outer space...and in times when there was not enough freedom to speak the truth or even anything which went against the religious "wisdom" (thats a oxymoron!)

Eki
24th April 2007, 09:41
Temple Grandin - pioneering work for people with Autism spectrum disorder, from the point of view of one of them.
Yes, opposite to the Virginia Tech shooter who also was autistic, she worked towards good instead of bad. While I feel somewhat sorry for the VT shooter, Temple Grandin has shown autism can't be used as an excuse for bad things.

http://www.templegrandin.com/

LeonBrooke
24th April 2007, 10:08
Yes, opposite to the Virginia Tech shooter who also was autistic, she worked towards good instead of bad. While I feel somewhat sorry for the VT shooter, Temple Grandin has shown autism can't be used as an excuse for bad things.

http://www.templegrandin.com/

Yeah, she's a great inspiration, and a great innovator in cattle management ;)

Have you read much of her work?

BDunnell
24th April 2007, 10:27
Dunnell, be a sport. Surely to god there are figures in society of the last century or two that you would say are people you thought well of. We all love our friends and families, but there people in history that are great examples to all of us, and often they are people you wouldn't really always agree with. Notice most of my heroes are centerists or to the left of the spectrum, yet I consider myself a small c conservative with a libertarian streak on social policy. I still can admire people for standing up in a way that makes them outstanding examples.


There are people whose work in various fields I think highly of, but I would never class them as heroes of any sort, nor say that they are examples to me personally.

Storm
24th April 2007, 10:53
I kinda agree with Ben here...neither are the names I listed my heroes, but rather people whose work/actions I admire.

mate
24th April 2007, 12:42
my heroes are Ron Kirkkle, Peter Brock.

Captain VXR
24th April 2007, 17:51
1) Alex Zanardi - even having his legs amputated in a horrific crash wont stop him from competitive racing in the WTCC
2) Martin Luther King - got black people equal rights to the whites
3) Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts - a brave squadron in the American civil war made entirely of black soldiers; and Colonel Robert Gould Shaw led them well, sadly killed at Fort Wagner. Robert was a white officer but refused to be paid his wages when he found out that his soldiers were being payed less; and they too refused their pay
4) Pope John Paul II - words cannot discribe how great a person he was
5) The suffragettes - they risked dying for women to get equal rights and the vote

Gibbsy
17th June 2007, 08:15
Adam Smith - Historys greatest economist. Understood that personal and economic freedom were the building blocks of a better world.

Ronald Reagan - The man who won the war. Only to then be accused of sleeping all the time.

PJ O'Rourke - Brilliant humorist, solid political commentator and champion libertarian. His work has changed my view of the world.

Cato - Idealistic but ultimately doomed defender of the Roman republic from the tyrant Caesar.

And a general one. All those who have played a part in making my own country a pretty good one. To be able to wake up in the morning free to do and say pretty much whatever one likes is never something that should be taken for granted.

LeonBrooke
17th June 2007, 09:42
Ronald Reagan - The man who won the war.

What war?

millencolin
17th June 2007, 15:43
As for you Borderpatrol guy, you had me until you put Tony George in there. THAT guy has messed up racing on this continent of the open wheeled variety and has said so many things that make me wonder if he is fit to run racing in any form. Great man, nice man, but seriously out to lunch on how racing works.....

i noticed that too! i wasn't going to say anything though so im glad you did.

many of the people i would list are already up on here already, so i'll just add one more

Sir Donald Bradman: Help a feldging nation find its wings. His wonderful performances on the field help build national pride within this nation during times of great difficulty. He's more than a sportsman, he was the greatest cricketer thats ever lived. But more importantly, he was, and still is, an inspiration.

schmenke
18th June 2007, 16:14
Alexander Keith