All right, I've had just about enough of this love for Alexander "the Great"
from Yost and Hart and Bruce. Hart is right, of course, Mohammed Ali was
the Greatest, everyone knows that. But, of course, I wasn't talking about
THE greatest, just the greater. And I contend that Mohandas was greater
than Alexander who, after all, was just another drunk who killed his best
friend. So he won a few battles -- and HE didn't win them, his soldiers
did -- so what? What did they win, after all, but the chance to fight
again. Oh great, just what they always wanted.
Now your Gandhi guy, he stared down the whole British Empire, an empire on
which, at that time, the sun never set. Alexander would have blinked, I
tell you, probably would have passed out. But not your Gandhi. He rocks,
he rules.
Mike Geary Memphis
On 7. Sep 2006, at 09:22, Eric Yost wrote:
Mike wrote: Gandhi is a greater force in the world than Alexander the Great.
Yikes! {{Wrong answer buzzer sounding}}
Like Alexander, Gandhi may have been a terrible husband and father, but Alexander's influence is far superior to any the old Mahatma may have culled.
Eric's judgement (with or without the buzzer) has the support of Michael H. Hart. In his _The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History_, Alexander makes it into the top 50, while Gandhi is included only in a list of 'runner-ups' (achieving place number 107, if I've counted correctly).
Incidentally, Hart's nomination for the most influential person in world history is:
Mohammed.
(Jesus Christ comes 3rd (after Isaac Newton), followed by Buddha in 4th place.)
Chris Bruce Kiel, Germany --
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