The greatest human ever....
Discussion
cuprabob said:
Joey Essex.
Agreed. When you think about it, the person we send for first contact ultimately needs to be sacrificial. No point sending one of brightest and best, only to later find the gesture was misinterpreted and they thought we were sending nibbles following their long journey.
Edited by Plate spinner on Tuesday 21st November 09:14
I reckon Bill Gates wouldn't be a terrible shout. He's intelligent, compassionate about the human race as a whole, but also savvy enough to consider the down and upsides of extended contact and dealings with a new race. In essence, the sort of chap that wouldn't say or do something dumb and doom the earth to annihilation.
In terms of a pinnacle of humankind, a lot of good examples exist in their own time. It would be worth considering though, say, that chap, or indeed chap-ess, who discovered fire and apparently did us a favour. Since the birth of modern humanity, we have been systematically destroying* (*significantly altering, if you want to use a less emotive term) large swathes of the planet that had been fairly stable for millennia and at some point, something fairly catastrophic is going to occur, so you could argue the vast majority are in fact the past, current of future architects of our own destruction and therefore not really worth of upholding at all.
In terms of a pinnacle of humankind, a lot of good examples exist in their own time. It would be worth considering though, say, that chap, or indeed chap-ess, who discovered fire and apparently did us a favour. Since the birth of modern humanity, we have been systematically destroying* (*significantly altering, if you want to use a less emotive term) large swathes of the planet that had been fairly stable for millennia and at some point, something fairly catastrophic is going to occur, so you could argue the vast majority are in fact the past, current of future architects of our own destruction and therefore not really worth of upholding at all.
Roofless Toothless said:
James TiT said:
Kenty said:
Winston Churchill without a shadow of doubt in my mind.
The passage of time has made you forget his many failures I imagine.What have you ever achieved?
James TiT said:
Roofless Toothless said:
James TiT said:
Kenty said:
Winston Churchill without a shadow of doubt in my mind.
The passage of time has made you forget his many failures I imagine.What have you ever achieved?
At the same time, Churchill was always a progressive among Tory ranks, and did much to bring about advances in social welfare, pensions - and the NHS, which although introduced by a labour government was a 'twinkle in the eye' of Churchill's wartime coalition government. He supported the founding of the European Union, but did not want to break up the Empire. And the subsequent history of many of our old colonies has not been happy.
The fashion for belittling Churchill's record and character to me seems to betray a lack of awareness of what he actually achieved.
For one thing, I am positive I wouldn't be sitting here typing this were it not for him.
t wouldn't have won the war without them.Fast and Spurious said:
Roofless Toothless said:
Compared to what that man achieved, his faults and failures are trivial.
What have you ever achieved?
I haven't achieved much, but neither have I wanted to drop poison gas on millions of civilians.What have you ever achieved?
My reading of the history of the Second World War is that Churchill wanted to keep poison gas in our armoury, just as we have ever since the first war, and to the modern age. If the Germans had invaded us, he wanted to use gas to try and prevent them succeeding. Given what Nazism represented as a threat to the free world, I have no hesitation in agreeing with this.
A couple of nominations to throw into the mix -
Hugh Thompson Jr. - prevented further bloodshed at the My Lai Massacre by shielding civilians with his helicopter and ordering his gunner to open fire on US troops if they fired upon the civilians.
Yanis Kanidis - teacher at Beslan school during the hostage crisis. Was offered the chance to escape but turned it down to stay with his pupils. Shot dead whilst struggling with one of the terrorists.
Hugh Thompson Jr. - prevented further bloodshed at the My Lai Massacre by shielding civilians with his helicopter and ordering his gunner to open fire on US troops if they fired upon the civilians.
Yanis Kanidis - teacher at Beslan school during the hostage crisis. Was offered the chance to escape but turned it down to stay with his pupils. Shot dead whilst struggling with one of the terrorists.
Roofless Toothless said:
Hitler didn't have any qualms about using gas on men, women and children. Millions of them.
My reading of the history of the Second World War is that Churchill wanted to keep poison gas in our armoury, just as we have ever since the first war, and to the modern age. If the Germans had invaded us, he wanted to use gas to try and prevent them succeeding. Given what Nazism represented as a threat to the free world, I have no hesitation in agreeing with this.
Churchill kept pushing to use gas in great quantities on German cities in 1944/45 because he hated the fact that we were under attack by V weapons and - for the V2 - that we could do nothing about it. The rest of the Government and even "bomber" Harris were rightly appalled by his proposal. I'll dig out more details if you are interested.My reading of the history of the Second World War is that Churchill wanted to keep poison gas in our armoury, just as we have ever since the first war, and to the modern age. If the Germans had invaded us, he wanted to use gas to try and prevent them succeeding. Given what Nazism represented as a threat to the free world, I have no hesitation in agreeing with this.
Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff