Basically, on almost every list of most influential people ever - its a close-tie between Muhammed and Jesus, with Muhammed having the upper-hand, based on averages. And the shocking thing is that: in the mainstream, where status quo reign supreme, hes the odd saviour and the one most people are averse to. So why is he the most influential person ever? Or is greatness measured based on being an odd-ball/ eccentricity, controversial and being different from the norm - something most can relate to in secret but dont have the balls/guts to align with in the open? Also, on this list are people like: Hitler, Stalin, Fidel Castro, Lenin, Karl Marx, Genghis Khan et al. People you cant openly align with. Even the likes of: Plato, Sir Isaac Newton, Einstein, Darwin, Aristotle, Dickens, Sigmund Freud, Socrates, William Shakespeare et al were all controversial while they were alive. We only started appreciating them years after their deaths. Furthermore, when you look at it critically, it seems almost all the people that broke barriers of social construct and influenced our lives, one way or the other, were/are eccentric, controversial and rebellious, against the norm. In music, we had controversial people like: Tupac, Fela kuti, Bob Marley, Michael Jackson, John Lennon, Frank SInatra, Jimi Hendrix etc.. In sports, the most influential figures who broke all barriers are also the most controversial. The likes of Maradona, Eric Cantona, Paolo Di Canio, Rene Higuita, Zinedine Zidane, Paul Gascoigne, and George Best in football. Boxing had the legendary Muhammed Ali and Mikel Tyson, with Floyd mayweather lurking. Formula 1 had Michael Schumacher. For basketball - Michael Jordan might be the greatest ever and the most popular guy to ever play the game. However, the most influential player will always be Allen Iverson. AI-3 brought hiphop to the NBA. Broke all barriers and he was rebellious against the status quo. He made it cool to wear cornrows and head- bands - and brought elaborate tattoos to the game of basketball. Throw in the Detroit Piston bad boy team of Isiah Thomas, John Salley, Rick Mahorn, Dennis Rodman and Bill Laimbeer. And University of Michigans Fab Five team of Chris webber, Jalen Rose, Jimmy King, Juan Howard, and Ray Jackson. NFL had Lawrence Taylor, Michael Irvin, Deion Sanders, and Warren Sapp. Even in everyday life and terms of choosing ideologies to align with - most young folks - black, white, hispanic, latino, asia, and arab align more with controversial figures. You can throw Che Guevara and Malcolm X in here. So the question is: why this anomaly?
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 05:53:08 +0000
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