20 thinkers for the 20th century

By Bob Gaydos

The time has come, admittedly much to my chagrin, to wrap this thinkers thing up and return to the real world of Rand Paul, Bristol Palin and Jersey Shore. Lord, what fools we mortals be. (Yeah, I lifted it.)

A few thoughts about this exercise in ego, selecting the 20 most influential thinkers of the 20th century:

• I started it as an escape from the aforementioned world, after a conversation with a couple of friends who had begun it for unknown reasons of their own.
• It quickly became an interesting exercise for my mind and attracted enough interest (I was amazed there was any) from readers to encourage me to do more than a superficial here’s-the-list-live-with-it-if-you-care job.
• I learned a lot about a lot of people whose names were familiar but whose accomplishments --and influence -- had faded into the recesses of my mind. Learning is always good.
• This caused me to actually think seriously about what real influence is -- the kind that spans generations, cultures, life styles and supposed areas of expertise. Who are the people who changed the world?
• For better or worse, this is still my list, albeit with some important input from readers, so disagree all you want. I’m sticking with it.

At last count, I had 14 names. Here are the final six: Carl Jung, Bill Gates, Margaret Sanger, Bertrand Russell, Bob Dylan, and T.S. Eliot

Carl Jung had a profound influence, not only on psychotherapy, but on the culture well beyond. He gave us the concept of introversion vs. extroversion. He also introduced the concept of the collective unconscious, a universal storehouse, as it were, of everything that has happened, even before humans. This influenced Joseph Campbell‘s writing on mythology and the creation of the “Star Wars” movies. Jung also believed that a spiritual experience was necessary for someone to recover from alcoholism. This theory eventually found its way to Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, and in time became the bedrock of all 12-step support groups.

A young Bill Gates dreamed of one day seeing a computer on everybody’s desk. Ta da! Today, with his billions of dollars and generous spirit, he seems almost intent on putting each computer there himself, along with making sure every person on the planet has access to good health care. He may or may not be the richest man in the world, but the Gates Foundation is the largest charitable foundation in this country. And Warren Buffett, no slouch when it comes to vision and making money, has turned over his multi-billion-dollar empire to the Gates Foundation because Buffett says Gates is the smartest man he knows and his foundation is more capable of investing all their billions to help solve world problems. Talk about setting a good example.

Margaret Sanger founded Planned Parenthood and freed women to control their own bodies and, in turn, their lives and futures. A vigorous crusader, her efforts led to family planning, research on birth control, provision of contraception and other health services and education of the public on these issues. Providing women with the ability to control their fertility directly impacted women’s progress around the world in the workplace, in education and in the exercise of economic and political power. Like it or not, those are the facts.

As controversial as he was ubiquitous, Bertrand Russell was a superstar intellectual, philosopher, writer, logician, mathematician, historian and social critic, whose opinions were eagerly sought on every imaginable topic of the day (mostly the 1940s and ’50s). That means people paid attention to what he thought, He also palled around with Albert Einstein (see No. 1 on the list). Russell was a founder of analytic philosophy and his writings influenced logic and mathematics as well as linguistics and metaphysics. When not doing that, the British subject argued against imperialism as well as against Hitler and Stalin. He also campaigned against United States involvement in Vietnam and was a staunch advocate for nuclear disarmament. He also lived to be 97.

Some Russell quotes:

• “It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.”
• “It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won't go.”
• “Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so.”

Bob Dylan has been called the poet-laureate of rock-n roll and the “voice of a generation.” Funny how that voice -- all gravelly and often incomprehensible -- has kept on going through generations, influencing not only musicians and songwriters, but the culture of the country. Would the civil rights and anti-war movements have been the same without Dylan’s musical accompaniment ("Blowin' in the Wind" and “The Times They Are a-Changin'")? Would young Americans have ever found their political voice and power without Dylan’s musical urgings? Maybe, but he surely has had a major influence in both areas, as well as on the kind of music people listen to. He never played at Woodstock, but a lot of people think he did. The stuff of legends, and he’s still on tour.

And finally, no list of influential thinkers worth its salt is complete without a poet. Poets make us think, not only about the lives we lead, but the manner in which we describe them. Poetic language is like no other, at once incisive, evocative, rhythmic and unforgettable. When it is good. Like T.S. Eliot’s. Eliot did not write as much poetry as a lot of his contemporaries, but no one had the influence he did in the 20th century -- even allowing for the nay-sayers who tore him down after his death. The expatriate American was also a playwright and the most influential critic in England in the 20th century. Plus, one of his lesser works, a book of light verse -- “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” -- became the basis for the hit musical, “Cats.”

Some Eliot:

• From The Hollow Men:

“This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.”

• "Poetry may make us from time to time a little more aware of the deeper, unnamed feelings which form the substratum of our being, to which we rarely penetrate; for our lives are mostly a constant evasion of ourselves."

• From The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock:

“I grow old … I grow old …

I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?

I shall wear white flannel trousers and walk upon the beach.

I have head the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me.”

No matter, sir, those lines still sing to me.

* * *

So, here it is, in no particular order, my list of the 20 Most Influential Thinkers of the 20th Century:

1. Albert Einstein
2. Gandhi
3. Henry Ford
4. The Wright Brothers (count as one)
5. Thomas Edison
6. Picasso
7. Nikola Tesla
8. Mark Twain
9. James D. Watson, Francis Crick, Rosalind Franklin (DNA trio count as one)
10. Winston Churchill
11. Philo Farnsworth
12. Rachel Carson
13. George Orwell
14. Sigmund Freud
15. Carl Jung
16. Bill Gates
17. Margaret Sanger
18. Bertrand Russell
19. Bob Dylan
20. T.S. Eliot

If you stuck around, thanks for your patience. And now, alas, back to reality.

bobgaydos.blogspot.com

No Freudian slip here

By Bob Gaydos

The popular TV show “Big Brother” is a virtual hot house of Freudian slips. And that should make it easy for you to figure out the next two members of The List of Most Influential Thinkers of the 20th Century.

Bravo to “the lady in the balcony” as Dr. IQ used to say on the radio. Yes, hats off to two Europeans whose influence on contemporary thought and culture has not waned even as their ideas came under increasing criticism following their deaths: George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair) and Sigmund Freud.

Orwell died 60 years ago, at the height of his writing career. He was 46. Do you have a TV show named after a phrase you created, a phrase so familiar around the world that it tells you all you need to know about the show before you watch it? Rhetorical.

Orwell’s most famous works, “Nineteen Eighty-Four” and “Animal Farm,” have sold more than 11 million copies each and are still widely read by students today. No other writer has produced two books that have been as successful.

From “Animal Farm’s” “All animals are equal but some are more equal than others,” to Nineteen Eighty-Four’s “Big Brother is watching you,” Orwell’s memorable critiques of the failure of totalitarianism have become part of our everyday language and shaped how we regard government efforts to control our lives and the tendency of revolutionaries to abandon their core principle of equality once they gain power. Fiercely anti-fascist, then anti-communist, he was a wealthy Englishman with socialist ideals. His strength was the clear, crisp, incisive way he expressed his views.

Think of “Newspeak’’ (deliberately simple but confusing language designed to discourage independent thought) and “Doublespeak” (holding two contradictory beliefs simultaneously)” and you have Orwellian ideas. Thanks to Orwell, we recognize them for what they are when we hear them today. (Well, some Tea Partiers may be the exception.)

Orwell was not only a novelist. He also virtually invented the free-wheeling social commentary column (today we call them blogs) and wrote hundreds of essays. Any serious writer would do well to follow his six rules of writing, as presented in an essay, “Politics and the English Language.” To wit:

• “Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech that you are used to seeing in print.”
• “Never use a long word when a short word will do.”
• “If it is possible to cut out a word, always cut it out.”
• “Use the active rather than passive voice.”
• “Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.”
• “Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.”

And if you dare to disagree with any of this, the “Thought Police” will get you.

And who better to police our thoughts, conscious, unconscious or preconscious, than Sigmund Freud? The so-called father of psychoanalysis was by far the most influential 20th century figure in the study of how the mind works and how it shapes what we become. He believed the unconscious part of our brain, where we store all the stuff that happens to us, including the really nasty stuff, played a primary role in this.

It’s true that a lot of his ideas have been challenged, but a measure of Freud’s unmatched influence is that even the vigorous debate in the field of psychology has revolved to a large extent over whether he was right or wrong. He dominates the conversation.

Freud introduced new ideas on how we think about memory, identity, sexuality, childhood, the meaning of dreams. He gave us the Oedipus complex and unconscious guilt. He introduced the therapist’s couch and lying-down talk therapy, which has evolved for the most part into sitting-up talk therapy. Dozens if not hundreds of movies, plays and novels have been influenced by Freud’s work.

Other forms of therapy have gained prominence since his death, but anyone asked to free associate when the word “psychologist” is uttered is odds-on to respond “Freud.” Sigmund makes The List. His mama would be proud.

* * *

So here’s where we stand with the list of 20 (in no specific order):

1. Albert Einstein
2. Gandhi
3. Henry Ford
4. The Wright Brothers (count as one)
5. Thomas Edison
6. Picasso
7. Nikola Tesla
8. Mark Twain
9. James D. Watson, Francis Crick, Rosalind Franklin (DNA trio count as one)
10. Winston Churchill
11. Philo Farnsworth
12. Rachel Carson
13. George Orwell
14. Sigmund Feud

bobgaydos.blogspot.com