# Our country/the world would be much different if \_\_\_\_\_ were still alive today. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 11, 2011, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950 "2011-09-11T16:40:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/1 "2011-09-11T16:40:22Z")
Reasonably alive, I mean. John Lennon might still plausibly be around today: FDR, not so much. And though I don’t necessarily like him all that much, I think the past ten years would have been a bit different at least in tone if John Lennon were still alive. ---
**Author:** ![MeinView](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a3d4f5/32.png) [@MeinView](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeinView)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/2 "2011-09-11T19:01:19Z")
Our country/the world would be much different if Bill Clinton was [still president] today. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/3 "2011-09-12T00:13:31Z")
Let’s see here: John F Kennedy Robert F Kennedy (probably would eventually have become President if he hadn’t died) ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/4 "2011-09-12T00:19:48Z")
[John Smith.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Smith_(Labour_Party_leader)) I know, that’s not a memorable name. He was leader of the Labour Party in a time period when it was pretty much guaranteed that Labour would win - seriously, they could have had a block of lard as their leader and they’d have won. He was much more left-wing that Tony Blair - most Labour members were - and I often wonder what would have happened had he become PM. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/5 "2011-09-12T00:25:08Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > Reasonably alive, I mean. John Lennon might still plausibly be around today: FDR, not so much. And though I don’t necessarily like him all that much, I think the past ten years would have been a bit different at least in tone if John Lennon were still alive. He might update “Taxman” to insert “Bush” and “Obama”. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_With_The_Golden_Gun)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/6 "2011-09-12T01:34:14Z")
Martin Luther King would have to be up there. ---
**Author:** ![heathen\_earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/13edae/32.png) [@heathen\_earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heathen_earthling)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/7 "2011-09-12T01:38:49Z")
_Homo erectus_. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/8 "2011-09-12T02:42:38Z")
> [@The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](#): > > Martin Luther King would have to be up there. That would be my choice. King was a great man and we could have used his wisdom in the last four decades. If King was alive today, he’d be 82 years old. (So would Anne Frank - she was only five months younger than King. It’s strange because you don’t think of the two of them as contemporaries.) ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/9 "2011-09-12T12:51:28Z")
Martin Luther King, for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/10 "2011-09-12T13:57:34Z")
All the cockroaches we’ve killed off. _Disgusting_, but much different. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/11 "2011-09-12T14:39:55Z")
I’d cast a vote for Lee Atwater. ---
**Author:** ![bartleby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bartleby/32/10491_2.png) [@bartleby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bartleby)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/12 "2011-09-12T15:54:41Z")
> [@MeinView](#): > > Our country/the world would be much different if Bill Clinton was [still president] today. how would this work out? would he have overthrown the government and installed himself as dictator? yes, this would have made the country very different… ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/13 "2011-09-12T16:57:31Z")
For my country, either Yitzhak Rabin or Ariel Sharon (I know Sharon is technically still alive, but it’s only technically). ---
**Author:** ![elninost0rm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ed655f/32.png) [@elninost0rm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elninost0rm)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/14 "2011-09-12T17:12:24Z")
Maybe not the WORLD, but I think Carl Sagan would’ve had a much greater impact had he lived longer. A lot of fascination with astronomy in young people died with his presentation methods and general demeanor. Shame, really. That said, my post is a bit tangential. I don’t think the country would be all that different, as a whole, if he were still alive, but I’d like to think that there would be a much larger following for exploration and the cosmos like there was in the 80’s/90’s. ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/15 "2011-09-13T16:34:03Z")
I think Yitzhak Rabin came closer to brokering peace with Palestine than any other Israeli prime minister. Edit: I see **Alessan** beat me to it. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/16 "2011-09-13T19:50:48Z")
Hitler, though obviously he’d be incredibly old. But his longevity would imply either a German defeat in WWII, or a world in which the Nazis were never brought to justice. Either way, the world would be horribly different. A more realistic choice would be Rabin. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/17 "2011-09-14T00:50:36Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Hitler, though obviously he’d be incredibly old. But his longevity would imply either a German defeat in WWII, or a world in which the Nazis were never brought to justice. Either way, the world would be horribly different. Not necessarilly. If say Hitler had become insane or an idiot he would simply have been institutionalized not executed. For an example: [http://books.google.com/books?id=zgceQFhgagcC&pg=PT41&dq=Winterberry+Alternate+Kennedys&hl=en&ei=NPpvTruMBobRiALq-5iPBw&sa=X&oi=book\_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Winterberry%20Alternate%20Kennedys&f=false](http://books.google.com/books?id=zgceQFhgagcC&pg=PT41&dq=Winterberry+Alternate+Kennedys&hl=en&ei=NPpvTruMBobRiALq-5iPBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Winterberry%20Alternate%20Kennedys&f=false) ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/18 "2011-09-14T01:12:00Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Hitler, though obviously he’d be incredibly old. 122, actually. He’d be the oldest living person. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/19 "2011-09-14T02:23:05Z")
And Hitler might have been living in a Soviet gulag all this time, getting a pineapple stuffed up his rear daily. Who can say? That’s why I don’t think it works for this thread to say “If \_\_\_\_\_ were alive, the world would be different _by implication_.” I’m more intrigued by the idea of what _active_ contributions so-and-so would be making to society, for good or ill. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/20 "2011-09-14T02:36:28Z")
Yitzhak Rabin. I think (hope?) the Labor Party would’ve fared a little better - not to mention the Oslo Accords - if he had not been assassinated. I know the world doesn’t stop and start with Israel (or Palestinians), but…you can’t separate domestic politics from the global stage. I also wonder the kinds of causes that Princess Diana would’ve taken up and advocated for. The British seem to love and hate their royals at the same time, but there are certain people in the world that act as global role models. edit: Sorry, I read that as ‘better’, not ‘different’…and several people beat me to the punch already. 😛 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950.md?page=2)