# 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:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**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, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/21 "2011-09-14T02:43:41Z")
> [@ratatoskK](#): > > Martin Luther King, for sure. I think the world could be a lot different, but I wonder how much of his past would’ve come out while he was alive. It just doesn’t seem right to talk trash about a dead person, especially if he’s an American icon. ---
**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, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/22 "2011-09-14T03:15:45Z")
> [@CitizenPained](#): > > I think the world could be a lot different, but I wonder how much of his past would’ve come out while he was alive. It just doesn’t seem right to talk trash about a dead person, especially if he’s an American icon. Or he might have simply faded out of view as a political has-been; or alternately acted as a slightly more effective Jesse Jackson. Frankly, I don’t see the world being radically different than what it is today. Now, if _Malcolm X_ had lived, who knows what he might have accomplished in ensuing years. Imagine if he were alive at the time of 9-11 . . . ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/23 "2011-09-14T16:23:32Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > He might update “Taxman” to insert “Bush” and “Obama”. At which point George Harrison would kvetch, ‘Why are you fiddling around with my bloody song?’ ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Bongo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a9adbd/32.png) [@Winston\_Bongo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Bongo)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/24 "2011-09-14T22:35:54Z")
Jim Henson. Okay, maybe the world wouldn’t be _much_ different, but there would be a little more joy and happiness. That should count for something. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/25 "2011-09-15T00:32:31Z")
> [@elninost0rm](#): > > Maybe not the WORLD, but I think Carl Sagan would’ve had a much greater impact had he lived longer. . . > [@Winston\_Bongo](#): > > Jim Henson. > > Okay, maybe the world wouldn’t be _much_ different, but there would be a little more joy and happiness. That should count for something. In somewhat the same vein, Issac Asimov would be 91, and might have published a thousand books.\* He might be filed in all ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal System, rather than just nine of them. \*Hey, once he started blogging, the compilation books would have come faster. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/26 "2011-09-15T00:36:00Z")
The Titanic? ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/27 "2011-09-15T00:36:15Z")
Heath Ledger ---
**Author:** ![Pazu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pazu/32/15522_2.png) [@Pazu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pazu)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950/28 "2011-09-15T19:50:22Z")
_Tyrannosaurus rex._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-country-the-world-would-be-much-different-if-_____-were-still-alive-today/595950.md?page=1)