Ask HN: Who’s the most underrated person in history?
18 comments
Chuck Norris
Me :)
Fritz 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
Without this guy, half of history wouldn't exist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Haber
I don't think he's underrated aa much as the bad stuff he done is a counter weight to his good stuff. Chemical warfare, ...
Squanto. 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.
It's tragic how one man's generous nature led to so much evil.
I 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.
You lost me. What synthesis culture? And why no Adam Smith?
Could you expand a bit on what you meant here?
Could you expand a bit on what you meant here?
By synthesis culture, I meant the period of intense cultural exchange between the Anglos and the Iroquois during the great migration and beyond. Squanto taught the Plymouth crew agriculture, politics, and war along the Indian pattern, and he died a Christian. Roger Williams brought Christianity to the Indians, and Indian culture back to the Anglos. They were probably thousands of praying Indians. By 1636 there was already a pidgin language in the area (“What cheer, netop?”) You can still see the lasting effect of Indian culture on American culture with Iroquois loanwords or translated concepts like caucus, powwow, peace pipe, warpath, etc. Williams was a relative and some even say a mentor to Oliver Cromwell.
Adam Smith realized that the laws of supply and demand apply to wages as well when he observed that Anglos on the North American continent were being paid more for the same kind of work that they did in England. The low labor supply was probably not due to a low population, but because the Indian gardening techniques had allowed the average household to be self-sufficient, taking the average colonist out of the labor market and allowing him to demand a higher wage for the same service.
This Anglo-Iroquois synthesis culture was overwhelmed by the successive waves of Anglos, from southwest England, Scotland, and Ireland, who did not benefit from this cultural exchange. The Plymouth colony was absorbed into the Massachusetts Bay colony after 100 years. But I believe it was pivotal to forming a national identity for the United States, which is why we still referred to the Puritan colony as the formation of America, and not the Roanoke colony, the Jamestown colony, or the Charleston colony, all of which preceded the Puritan colony. I also believe it was a prototype for the dominant form of capitalism over the past 200 years in the United States, which is now receding in favor of older forms like feudalism, in the form of techno-feudalism, and mercantilism in the form of global trade deals.
Adam Smith realized that the laws of supply and demand apply to wages as well when he observed that Anglos on the North American continent were being paid more for the same kind of work that they did in England. The low labor supply was probably not due to a low population, but because the Indian gardening techniques had allowed the average household to be self-sufficient, taking the average colonist out of the labor market and allowing him to demand a higher wage for the same service.
This Anglo-Iroquois synthesis culture was overwhelmed by the successive waves of Anglos, from southwest England, Scotland, and Ireland, who did not benefit from this cultural exchange. The Plymouth colony was absorbed into the Massachusetts Bay colony after 100 years. But I believe it was pivotal to forming a national identity for the United States, which is why we still referred to the Puritan colony as the formation of America, and not the Roanoke colony, the Jamestown colony, or the Charleston colony, all of which preceded the Puritan colony. I also believe it was a prototype for the dominant form of capitalism over the past 200 years in the United States, which is now receding in favor of older forms like feudalism, in the form of techno-feudalism, and mercantilism in the form of global trade deals.
He 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?
I bought this fiddle from some dude on eBay call Nero. Shall we play?
Bull. 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.
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.
You'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.
That was mostly Chomsky on quick summary, but you wouldn't be the first to malign him. Being right, he wouldn't care.
I'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.
No. The racism came after what I’m talking about from a different population of whites.
Despite driving a devastating genocide of native peoples, it failed to wipe away the Indian influence completely from American and world culture, which we trace back to Squanto’s collaboration with the Pilgrims to found the Plymouth colony.
Despite driving a devastating genocide of native peoples, it failed to wipe away the Indian influence completely from American and world culture, which we trace back to Squanto’s collaboration with the Pilgrims to found the Plymouth colony.
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Diogenes 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.