The Power of One

aquafire

If you were given the " Bruce Almighty " Power to change ONE historical event anywhere and at anytime in the world's history..



( with the proviso that it must be to increase world peace & security)..



What would you change & why ?



Personally...I would have made sure Stalin was never born...As he single handedly was responsible for the deaths of at least 30 million of his own people...



Actually I am sorely tempted to bump off a few others..see it's tough..but between the rest of us, we can weasel them out of their hidey-holes of history...

aquafire

That's Freaky....\

buonrotto

I'd squish the fish that crawled out of the pond.

crusader

Wow, a tough question. One has to weigh what event has effected what, and what would change. Gut instinct tell me to knock off Mao. I'd have to say that I would try and stem the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918-1919, or try and prevent the Black Death. Heck, maybe I would have introduced the potato earlier, leading to a very early population boom in Europe. So many events one want's to change...

splinemodel

I think I would have joined the Rugby team in Freshman year, instead of waiting until senior year.



We learn lessons from earth shattering events. If no Stalin, someone else would have filled his shoes. etc.

thuh freak

well, for me, it seems pretty easy: hitler. without his rampage, Einstein would never have immigrated here, likely would not have had the force of the government to instruct him to make the world's hell, hopefully would never have made it, and a large vibe of the cold war could have been avoided. sure the whole anti-communist/anti-capatalist fight might have brewed, but without the threat of global destruction it would've gone to a real fight, and a lot sooner. a generation or two wouldn't have had to live in daily fere of a nuke going off. every war since the nuclear war has been drastically affected by that one. the main drawback is, if there was a hot war a bunch sooner, than we may have never had the space race, therefore plastics and miniaturization techniques wouldn't've developed till a lot later (if at all) and i may not have this blazing fast g3, or my job ... i wonder what i'd be if not a geek ... (sparks a spliff) ...

liquidr

Quote:

originally posted by thuh Freak



well, for me, it seems pretty easy: hitler. without his rampage, Einstein would never have immigrated here, likely would not have had the force of the government to instruct him to make the world's hell, hopefully would never have made it, and a large vibe of the cold war could have been avoided. sure the whole anti-communist/anti-capatalist fight might have brewed, but without the threat of global destruction it would've gone to a real fight, and a lot sooner. a generation or two wouldn't have had to live in daily fere of a nuke going off. every war since the nuclear war has been drastically affected by that one.

I'd go further back and stop the assasination of that prince that sparked the first World War, thereby never neccesitating the Treaty of Versailles, thereby never imposing the adversities in Germany that gave rise to attraction to the Nazi party and Hitler.



Or go stop European colonialism, which I attribute as being the cause of many of the woes and ills in the world.

cooop

Quote:

Pass a "maximum wage" law (any personal income over a certain level MUST be reinvested in creating new business or research)

Isn't that a bit Communistic? The truth comes out... Where's ol' McCarthy when you need him?

luca

I would go back to Leonardo Da Vinci's time and make sure his discoveries and findings were passed on to other scientists. I have heard that people may have had powered flight some 200 years earlier had someone followed up on Da Vinci's work. Imagine where we would be now!

superkarate monkeydeathcar

versailles paris 1919

bunge

Quote:

Originally posted by segovius

Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1929 invented one of the most inhuman instruments of torture yet devised by man's fetid and twisted imagination and left legacy of terror that still confronts us in public spaces everywhere: the accordion.



I would have stopped him.

Please edit this before Superkaratemonkeydeathcar reads it...

aquafire

Quote:

Originally posted by segovius

Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1929 invented one of the most inhuman instruments of torture yet devised by man's fetid and twisted imagination and left legacy of terror that still confronts us in public spaces everywhere: the accordion.



I would have stopped him.

You rate that worse than Bagpipes...



In WW1 the germans claimed that it used to freeze their blood to hear it wafting over the trenches...!



Maybe we could play Bagpipes over that mountainous region of Afghanistan / Pakistan where OBL is allegedly hiding...

aquafire

Quote:

Originally posted by segovius

Actually Aqua I think you'll find that the bagpipes (al-Ghaita some say this is the root of alligator though God knows why) originated in Afghanistan in the first place so maybe that wouldn't scare them too much !

Ochh hoots man, Tae wee Baggies wer inventid in bonnie Egpyta tae wae bark inder tymes dee O'd'Pharoahs...

pfflam

Get rid of Attilla the Huns father's father and stop the huns from being teh force that they were . . . they were probably responcible for the Invasion of the Barbarians (*ehem* I mean the Germanic tribes) and the downfall of Rome as well as shaping all subsequent european and asian history . . what would have happened without the weakening of Rome in both the East and the West . . . would the Saracens been able to expand?

would the Dark ages have happened?

would the Romans have developed the technologies earlier which took over a thousand years to spring up in Europe later ?



or was the fall of Rome a good thing in that it allowed Europe to be unified under its own stamp rather than that of a semi-tyranical system . . . but a developement that took over a thoussand years

or was the shift in populations a good thing because it forced a mixing of cultures?



hhm?

it would be interesting with computers big enough and enough ram . . . say a trillion trillion googleplex Gigabytes - you could just plug the input and watch what would happen

aquafire

That's more like a time machine job...8)

sammi jo

I would have persuaded NikolaTesla to have stood firm regarding the ($$enormous) royalties due to him from Westinghouse Corp., rather than reliquishing those rights...

not unlike myself

I'd either stop Jesus from being killed and thus negating salvation...



...or smack b*tched eve for touching that bloody fruit.

moogs

I would travel back in time and stomp on the human gene that gave rise to the emotion / behavior known as greed. Greed has directly or indirectly caused more deaths (including Jesus') and suffering in this world than just about anything else I can think of. Even wars started under the guise of religion or political superiority are [usually] little more than veiled greed on the part of the involved leaders. Greed sucks.

curiousuburb

Quote:

Originally posted by Aquafire

If you were given the " Bruce Almighty " Power to change ONE historical event anywhere and at anytime in the world's history..



( with the proviso that it must be to increase world peace & security)..



What would you change & why ?

2000 US Presidential Election.

Buh Bye Dubya. No, daddy can't help you. No cabal for you.

Gore wouldn't have cut NASA or the Space Station.

Gore wouldn't have pissed off the rest of the world, or invaded Iraq.

Gore wouldn't still deny Global Warming in a year of global record extremes everywhere.

Gore can pronounce 'nuclear' without an intermediate vowel.



GWB seems to be having an odd effect on 'world peace & security', depending on one's perspective



edit: if godlike power is temporarily mine, i'll reserve the right to change mind as well as event later :P



continuing the Apollo program towards Mars is a tempting tweak of historical priorities

aquafire

Quote:

Originally posted by Not Unlike Myself

I'd either stop Jesus from being killed and thus negating salvation...



...or smack b*tched eve for touching that bloody fruit.

1: Your salvation was & always has been available without any need for any blood sacrifice.



" Crucifixion / blood atonement "..was Paul's bargain to win over jewish converts...



2: "Smack b*tching " anyone is hardly a progressive step toward peace & love...





IMO

murbot

Someone please tell me what the hell "smack bitching" someone is.



Is that like getting the shit out of beat you? Or is it more like getting your kick assed? Anyway, up beating women is wrong. I'd definitely have to bitch slap you for that one.