The last issue of Time magazine this century dated, 12-31-99 has Albert Einstein on the cover with the title, Person of the Century. My question obviously is, why? Aren’t there others more deserving of the honour? Was what he did so great? He didn’t invent the bomb, he didn’t even do experiments to prove his assertions. Many think he was wrong about a lot of his ideas. So is this valid? Is it sexist? He was a failure as a husband and a father so isn’t this a bad choice? Family and love are more powerful than any theory or technology.
Thoughts? Opinions? Hi-jacking?
FDR, Churchill, Hitler, Eisenhower, Gorbachev, Stalin…I think they all made for news and influenced the world more. Picking a political leader is too boring, I guess.
I think Oppenhiemer is considered the father of the A-bomb, not Einstein.
Phaedrus, I don’t know if you saw this recent thread, but there are some good nominations for non-political figures in here. (If you ignore the Hitler debate, anyway)
http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum7/HTML/000790.html
Easy one-step assembly instructions.
Pour Beer A in Uncle B.
curious george: Yeah, I know what you mean.
Unca: Thanks, no I never made it over there. I am a little sensitive in that department and I thought I would just get upset if I went there. Thanks for the heads up, I’ll go check it out.
Yours,
Phaedrus
Don’t know if you read the issue, Phaedrus, but Time itself discussed many of these same issues.
Little Nemo: No, I just picked it up when I went out for breakfast. I haven’t read it yet. I thought though that it would make a “great debate”.
Wouldn’t it have been better to first read why Time chose him rather than asking all of us that question?
Okay to summarize what Time said, they argued that there were three great movements of the 20th century; a growing scientific knowledge of the universe, the triumph of democracy over dictatorship, and the rise of individual civil rights. They suggested a number of people that helped in each of these movements and named three as the most important leader in each; Einstein, Franklin Roosevelt, and Mohandas Gandhi. They then explained why they felt that of the three movements, the scientific was the one which had the greatest impact.
In support of all this, they had biographical essays on all three men I mentioned above, as well as shorter biographies on a number of other people. There were tributes by Stephen Hawking, Bill Clinton, and Nelson Mandela. There was an essay talking about Hitler’s impact on history and considering whether evil could have a larger effect than good. And among the writings on Einstein, there was information about his errors in physics and his poor family life.
David B: Not as I see it. This is the Great Debates Forum and I was interested in the viewpoints of others, not diseminating info on Einstein. For my part I think he was one of the world’s most influential people and as a scientist one of the best we have ever had. His theory of relativity and his letter to FDR changed the world in a way that no other living human ever has. He made the entire civilized world realize that the whole planet could be destroyed permanently. He woke us up as a species and so far we have realized the futility of “World Wars”. Thank God and Einstein! I hope we will remember what he taught us.
Shalom
Phaedrus
How about Edwin Teller? Sure, Oppenheimer gets credit for the A-bomb, but Teller almost single-handedly brought the much-more-powerful H-bomb into existence.
Without the H-bomb, there would have been no policy of Mutually Assured Destruction. A-bombs simply don’t have the kill radius for it. No M.A.D., and the Cold War would have proceeded very differently. It might not have even stayed a cold war. All hail Teller!
The truth, as always, is more complicated than that.
No man (neither Einstein, Oppenheimer, nor Teller) was more responsible for the developement of the atomic bomb/energy than Leo Szilard. Not only was he the first to envision a practical means of unleashing the power of the atom, he was also the person who asked Einstein to send the aforementioned letter to FDR.
Szilard Lizard Teller Shmeller
Einstein was GOD!
End of story. 
I always suspected God died about the same time they stopped showing a cartoon before every movie.
Elmer J. Fudd,
Millionaire.
I own a mansion and a yacht.
At least they kept his eyes.
LOL
It’s a reasonable question, if not fully a GD, even after a year. (I was looking up a point I thought I’d made in a thread from a year ago, and noticed this one.)
If Einstein isn’t the Man of the Century, who in your opinion is, and why?
Wow, that scared me. All I saw was a thread where the OPer was Phaedrus…
PeeQueue
It’s a toss up between Jerry Stiller and Marty Allen.
[Moderator Hat: ON]
I’m sorry, Poly, if you want to bring up this topic, that’s one thing – but dredging up this thread (with this particular OP) is another.
I’m locking it up.
David B, SDMB Great Debates Moderator
[Moderator Hat: OFF]