# The Revised One Hundred Most Influential People Elimination Game **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [April 12, 2010, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-revised-one-hundred-most-influential-people-elimination-game/535808 "2010-04-12T03:27:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-revised-one-hundred-most-influential-people-elimination-game/535808/61 "2010-04-14T00:24:24Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Curtis, considering how you’re taking this so completely unseriously–not voting according to the rules, but rather trying to game your own game–can you be surprised at all that nobody else is taking it seriously? > > In the spirit of rank cheating, I’m changing my vote away from Hitler, to Paul. Not because I think Paul was worse than Hitler, but because I can see that I’m not supposed to play according to the rules of the game. I encourage other folks who voted for Hitler to change their vote for the same reason. This means I get to vote Hitler for the first time, again, later! OK. I switch to Paul of Tarsus. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-revised-one-hundred-most-influential-people-elimination-game/535808/62 "2010-04-14T01:07:18Z")
If we’re allowed to game the system, I’ll change my no-vote to Paul H. Tarsus. This should enable me to vote for Mohammed H. Prophet in the second round, just like last time. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-revised-one-hundred-most-influential-people-elimination-game/535808/63 "2010-04-14T01:27:10Z")
Can we add write-in candidates? If so, I’d like to choose Perez Hilton. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-revised-one-hundred-most-influential-people-elimination-game/535808/64 "2010-04-14T01:29:37Z")
What’s the point of voting off write-in candidates? They’re already not in the running… ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-revised-one-hundred-most-influential-people-elimination-game/535808/65 "2010-04-14T01:38:56Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Can we add write-in candidates? No. We have to select from the list. Otherwise, geez, I’d be adding cripes only knows how many goldarn people. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-revised-one-hundred-most-influential-people-elimination-game/535808/66 "2010-04-14T02:20:43Z")
I too am changing my vote to Perez Hilton, unless this is not allowed, in which case I am leaving my vote Jesus Christ. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-revised-one-hundred-most-influential-people-elimination-game/535808/67 "2010-04-14T02:51:40Z")
I’ll switch from Jesus to Paul. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-revised-one-hundred-most-influential-people-elimination-game/535808/68 "2010-04-14T05:57:14Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > I’ll change the vote to Mohammed. You describe Mr. Christ as “Son of God, Saviour of Mankind” and now vote to eliminate Mohammed in the first round? I’m no pro-jihadist myself, but would it be fair to speculate that your position on the World’s Two Greatest Religions™ is less than fully objective? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-revised-one-hundred-most-influential-people-elimination-game/535808/69 "2010-04-14T09:49:15Z")
While we’re waiting, can I take a moment to express surprise at seeing J.S. Bach on the list? Nice though it is to see the musical arts represented, and as great a composer as Bach was in his own right, he was not really very influential musically or otherwise. In fact, he was seen as been hopelessly old-fashioned along before his death in 1750. His main actual influence was through his sons JC and CPE, who did both have a measurable influence on musical style of the late 18th century, and through appreciation by composers subsequent to his musical revival (for which Mendelssohn gets most of the credit). Beethoven makes perfect sense on that list, and one could easily have added Dufay, Dunstable, Josquin, Palestrina, Monteverdi, Pergolesi, Haydn (_especially_ Haydn), Rossini, Wagner, Schoenberg and many others as being crucially influential. But Bach? Nope. ---
**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:** [April 14, 2010, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-revised-one-hundred-most-influential-people-elimination-game/535808/70 "2010-04-14T16:23:02Z")
I haven’t read Hart’s book in quite a while, but as I recall, his argument was that Bach was the first big celebrity musician. Prior to him, musicians were mostly anonymous. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-revised-one-hundred-most-influential-people-elimination-game/535808/71 "2010-04-15T00:18:55Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I haven’t read Hart’s book in quite a while, but as I recall, his argument was that Bach was the first big celebrity musician. Prior to him, musicians were mostly anonymous. He’s wrong that Bush was a celebrity musician. Among his contemporaries, Handel was _far_ more famous, and one could easily make a case for Vivaldi, Rameau, and Telemann being far more well-known and influential at the time, Rameau in particular although you’d only know that if you studied the history of music theory (Rameau is probably the single composer/theorist most responsible for the notion that chords have roots and inversions.) However, Bach came to be revered in the late 18th to early 19th centuries; Bach’s work is now regarded as the foundation of common-practice harmony. Other celebrity musicians earlier than Bach would include Monteverdi, John Dunstable, Josquin de Prez, Johannes Ockeghem, and Guillaume Dufay. In short, Hart’s knowledge of music history is clearly abominable, in that he picked Bach for something he really wasn’t (a major musical celebrity in his time, and certainly wouldn’t have been the first, either) and ignored what Bach really is, a composer who came to be justly and widely revered only long after his death. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-revised-one-hundred-most-influential-people-elimination-game/535808/72 "2010-04-15T01:52:47Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > In short, Hart’s knowledge of music history is clearly abominable, in that he picked Bach for something he really wasn’t (a major musical celebrity in his time, and certainly wouldn’t have been the first, either) and ignored what Bach really is, a composer who came to be justly and widely revered only long after his death. I realize you were reacting to another’s post, **Knorf** , but this is yet another of several posts which have misrepresented Hart’s biographies. I have Hart’s book open to the biography of Bach as I type this message and he _very clearly_ states that he ranks Bach highly for _precisely_ the reason you say he “ignores” (and because Bach was “technically the best craftsman” among major composers). Moreover, Hart stresses that Bach was not particularly famous during his own lifetime and was “half forgotten during the fifty years following his death.” I’m sure there’s much fault to be found in Hart’s book. But I’ve seen a few posts already that completely misrepresent his thinking. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-revised-one-hundred-most-influential-people-elimination-game/535808/73 "2010-04-15T03:20:33Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > He’s wrong that Bush was a celebrity musician. Well, he was briefly popular with that “Glycerine” song, so it could be argued that he was a celebrity muscision, but he was far from the first. ---
**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:** [April 15, 2010, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-revised-one-hundred-most-influential-people-elimination-game/535808/74 "2010-04-15T03:36:02Z")
> [@](#): > > I realize you were reacting to another’s post, Knorf, but this is yet another of several posts which have misrepresented Hart’s biographies. I did say I was working from memory. ---
**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:** [April 15, 2010, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-revised-one-hundred-most-influential-people-elimination-game/535808/75 "2010-04-15T03:37:32Z")
And a late vote for Hitler. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-revised-one-hundred-most-influential-people-elimination-game/535808/76 "2010-04-15T04:56:03Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > It might have been a century or more before anyone tried such an unlikely voyage (and discovered some unknown continents were in the way). No, not at all. The Americas were discovered for a second time, independently of Columbus’s voyage, only eight years after his trip. If Columbus had never existed, the Americas would have been discovered all the same at about the same time. The main difference would have been that Spain probably would not have been in the forefront of their colonization. Pedro Alvares Cabral of Portugal, who was attempting to round Africa on his way to India, was blown off course and landed on the coast of Brazil in 1500. Because of the prevailing winds, it was typical by then for ships attempting to sail around Africa to take a course well offshore. Given the number of ships making the voyage, and the closeness of Africa and Brazil, it was pretty much inevitable for the Americas to have been discovered within only a few years of when they actually were. Columbus was largely irrelevant to the fact that the Americas were discovered. He affected the details of their colonization, but not the timing. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-revised-one-hundred-most-influential-people-elimination-game/535808/77 "2010-04-15T05:37:27Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > I’m sure there’s much fault to be found in Hart’s book. But I’ve seen a few posts already that completely misrepresent his thinking. I accept the criticism. Bush? How the heck did I type that rather than Bach?! ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-revised-one-hundred-most-influential-people-elimination-game/535808/78 "2010-04-15T13:35:47Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > …what Bach really is, a composer who came to be justly and widely revered only long after his death. I forget which notable British scientist it was who wrote (I’m paraphrasing here), “We should be broadcasting Bach night and day out into the cosmos so that intelligent aliens will know he was from here. It would be bragging, of course, but first impressions can be quite important, after all.” ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-revised-one-hundred-most-influential-people-elimination-game/535808/79 "2010-04-15T16:50:04Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I forget which notable British scientist it was who wrote (I’m paraphrasing here), “We should be broadcasting Bach night and day out into the cosmos so that intelligent aliens will know he was from here. It would be bragging, of course, but first impressions can be quite important, after all.” According to Douglas Adams, Bach never even actually existed, and was retconned into reality so that the theme of the universe could exist here on earth. Love me some Bach. ---
**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:** [April 15, 2010, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-revised-one-hundred-most-influential-people-elimination-game/535808/80 "2010-04-15T22:58:13Z")
Wednesday has come and gone. It appears we lost Curtis. I guess he was able to take people voting to kill Jesus but then you guys had to insult George Bush as well. Anyway, here’s the votes, assuming I counted right: Jesus Christ 19 Paul of Tarsus 5 Adolf Hitler 6 Mohammed 2 Isabella 1 Mani 1 Urban 1 the Wright brothers 1 So Jesus, Paul, and Hitler are out. Let’s start Round 2. Mohammed - Founder of Islam Isaac Newton - British Scientist, Theory of Universal Gravitation and Motion Buddha - Founder of Buddhism Confucius - Chinese Philosopher, Founder of Confucianism Ts’ai Lun - Scientist, Inventor of Paper Johann Gutenberg - Scientist, Inventor of Printing Press Christopher Columbus - Explorer, Discoverer of America Albert Einstein - Scientist, Physicist, Theory of Relativity Louis Pasteur - Scientist, Pasteurization Galileo Galilei - Scientist, Advocated Heliocentricity Aristotle - Greek Philosopher Euclid - Greek Mathematician Moses - Jewish Prophet Charles Darwin - British Scientist, Theory of Evolution Shi Huang Di - Chinese Emperor, United China Augustus Caesar - Roman Princep, Founded Roman Empire Nicolas Copernicus - Scientist, Theory of Heliocentricity Antonine Laurent Lavoisier - French Scientist, Advanced Chemistry Constantine the Great - Roman Emperor, Promoted Christianity James Watt - British Scientist, Invented Steam Engine Michael Faraday - British Scientist, Discovered Magneto-Electricity James Clerk Marxwell - Scientist, Electromagnetic Spectrum Martin Luther - Theologian, Started Protestantism and Reformation George Washington - American Statesman and General Karl Marx - Economist, Founder of Communism Orville and Wilbur Wright - Scientists, Inventor of Airplane Genghis Khan - Mongol Ruler, Founded Mongol Empire Adam Smith - Economist, Advocated Capitalism William Shakespeare - English Playwright John Dalton - Scientist, Atomic Theory Alexander the Great, Macedonian Ruler, Formed Macedonian Empire Napoleon Bonaparte - French Emperor, Waged Napoleonic Wars Thomas Edison - American Scientist and inventor Antony van Leeuwenhoek - Scientist, Inventor of Microscope William TG Morton - Scientist, Invented Anaesthesia Gugilemo Marconi - Scientist, Invented Radio Plato - Greek Philosopher, Developed Platonism Oliver Cromwell - British Ruler Alexander Graham Bell - Scientist, Invented Telephone Alexander Fleming - Scientist, Invented Penicillin John Locke - British Philosopher, Developed Democratic Ideas Ludwig von Beethoven - Composer Werner Heisenberg - Scientist, Developed Quantum Physics Louis Dagurre - Scientist, Invented Photography Simon Bolivar - Latin American General and Statesman Rene Descrates - French Philosopher Michelangelo - Artist, Sculptor Pope Urban II - Pope of Roman Catholic Church, Called For Crusades ‘Umar ibn al - Khattab - Muslim Caliph, Expanded the Caliphate Asoka - Indian Emperor, Spread Buddhism St. Augustine - Christian Theologian William Harvey - Scientist, Developed Theories of Blood Circulation Ernest Rutherford - Scientist, Developed Subatomic Physics John Calvin - Christian Theologian, Developed Calvinism Gregor Mendel - Priest and Scientist, Advanced Genetics Max Planck - Scientist, Developed Therodynamics Joseph Lister - Scientist, Developed Antiseptic Methods Nikolaus August Otto - Scientist, Developed Internal Combustion Engine Francisco Pizarro - Spanish Adventurer, Conquered Inca Empire Hernando Cortes - Spanish Adventurer, Conquered Aztec Empire Thomas Jefferson - American Statesman Queen Isabella I - Queen of Spain, Sponsored Columbus’ Expeditions Josef Stalin - Dictator of USSR, Expanded Communism Julius Caesar - Roman General, Ended Roman Civil Wars William the Conquerer - Norman Duke and English King Sigmund Freud - Psychologist, Developed Freudian Psychology Edward Jenner - Scientist, Developed Vaccination for Smallpox William Conrad Roentgen - Scientist, Invented X-Ray Johann Sebastian Bach - Composer Lao Tzu - Chinese Philosopher, Founded Taoism Voltaire - French Philosopher Johannes Kepler - Scientist, Developed Theories of Planetary Motion Enrico Fermi - Scientist, Developed Atomic Bomb Leonhard Euler - Mathematician Jean - Jacques Rosseau - French Philosopher and Writer Nicoli Machiavelli - Political Theorist Thomas Malthus - Economist, Developed Malthusian Theory John F. Kennedy - American President, Originated Manned Mission to Moon Gregory Pincus - Scientist, Invented Birth-Control Pill Mani - Founder of Manichaeism V.I. Lenin - Russian Leader, Founded Communism in Russia Sui Wen Ti - Chinese Emperor, Reunited China Vasco de Gama - Explorer, Discovered Cape of Good Hope Cyrus the Great - Persian Emperor, Founded Persian Emperor Peter the Great - Russian Emperor, Modernized Russia Mao Zedong - Chinese Dictator, Established Communism in China Francis Bacon - Philosopher, Developed Scientific Method Henry Ford - American Industrialist, Developed Mass-Production Techniques Mencius - Chinese Philosopher, Expanded Confucianism Zoraster - Founder of Zorasterianism Queen Elizabeth I - Queen of England, Made England a Naval Power Mikhail Gorbachev - Soviet Leader, Liberalized and Helped Break Up USSR Menes - Egyptian Pharaoh, United Egypt Charlemagne - Frankish Monarch, Founder of Holy Roman Empire Homer - Greek Poet, Writer of Epics Justinian I - Byzantine Emperor, Recovered Much of Roman Empire Mahavira - Founder of Jainism I’m voting for Stalin. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-revised-one-hundred-most-influential-people-elimination-game/535808.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-revised-one-hundred-most-influential-people-elimination-game/535808.md?page=5)