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Ask HN: Who’s the most underrated person in history?
- powerbroker 5y agoFritz Haber is also considered the "father of chemical warfare" ... and also created the process to synthesize ammonia which is at the root of an agriculture that supports half the world's population. Without this guy, half of history wouldn't exist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Haber https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Haber
- fiftyacorn 5y agoI don't think he's underrated aa much as the bad stuff he done is a counter weight to his good stuff. Chemical warfare, ...
- tboyd47 5y agoSquanto. Without his intervention, the Plymouth colonists all die, the Anglo-Iroquois synthesis culture never develops, Adam Smith never describes capitalism, and the geopolitical balance of power in the world never shifts west of the Atlantic.
- krapp 5y agoIt's tragic how one man's generous nature led to so much evil.
- tboyd47 5y agoI don't even see it as pure generosity anymore. There could have been a survival motive behind it. Before Squanto, the Brits who landed at Turtle Island had been treated either with shunning, captivity, or adoption into local tribes. Squanto visited them and taught them technology and government. There are a lot of theories about why he chose to deal with the settlers so differently from the rest of his countrymen but I don't think he was the "noble savage" he's usually portrayed as.
- AnimalMuppet 5y agoYou lost me. What synthesis culture? And why no Adam Smith? Could you expand a bit on what you meant here?
- tenfourwookie 5y agoHe means the slow, grinding processes that virtually eliminated all natives in the Americas, stealing their lands and lives with phony treaties, disease, and war, leading to a most ridiculous zeitgeist know as Manifest Destiny, wherein we whitewashed colonial genocide of the highest order over generations in the name of freedom, established a country built on slave labor, and then allowed industry and military to establish a virtual high priest sect know as modern finance. With the high priests now failing us every few years, seemingly worse each time, and pestilence all around us, the drama continues to unfold. I think he means something like that, synthesis culture being euphemistic. I suppose that has a nicer ring to it than assimilation. I bought this fiddle from some dude on eBay call Nero. Shall we play?
- AnimalMuppet 5y agoBull. That's not what he meant, and I think you know it. You just saw a chance to grind your axe. There is nothing in your rant that looks remotely like a "synthesis culture", and a bunch of it happens after Adam Smith. So, while it's a semi-decent rant (you missed sexism and oppression of LGBTQ+), it doesn't answer my question at all, despite pretending to.
- tenfourwookie 5y agoYou're the one asking what he meant. Odd that you seem to be so sure when you yourself aren't sure at all. That was mostly Chomsky on quick summary, but you wouldn't be the first to malign him. Being right, he wouldn't care.
- AnimalMuppet 5y agoI'm not sure what he meant, but yes, I'm pretty sure what you said wasn't it. What's more, I'm pretty sure you know it.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- jyu 5y agoDiogenes of Sinope. The more you read about him the stranger things get. Alexander the Great came to him and sought his guidance. Instead of being impressed and delighted by his request, Diogenes asked Alexander the Great to move to stop blocking his sunlight. Unfortunately, most of his primary sources have been lost besides "Lives of Eminent Philosophers." His stories offer great levity and fresh perspective.
- chnoris 5y agoChuck Norris
- URfejk 5y agoMe :)