Greatest 100 Americans’ List is baloney
I should learn not to look at these lists
I normally try not to look at lists like this because they just upset me. But there I was, with 25 minutes ahead of me on the stairmaster, sweat dripping off my forehead, and a choice of Bill O’Reilley, some cop show about pedophiles, and the results of a Discovery Channel poll to say who are the greatest 100 Americans. I could watch them all by flipping the audio from one channel to the next.
There were a few good ones, but some of the choices just blew my mind: Tom Cruise? Ellen DeGeneres? Hugh Hefner? Lucille Ball? Madonna? DR. PHIL?!!
(“Hey, is that guy over there on the stairmaster having a heart attack? It looks like he’s having trouble breathing!“)
OK, they had Abraham Lincoln, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Alexander Hamilton (breathing a little better now), George Washington Carver… deep breaths now, sloooow deep breaths…
It is painfully obvious from this list that Americans who responded to the survey really liked celebrities. The only sense in which Dr. Phil belongs on any list with Benjamin Franklin is that they are both names someone might have heard somewhere.
Yeesh…
The Top 100 Nominees in first-name alphabetical order. I have marked in bold the names of those whom I would agree belong on this kind of list. Not that the others aren’t admirable individuals (though a few, in fact, are not admirable) but “great American” should mean something in the way of a broad - and on balance, positive - historic contribution:
Abraham Lincoln
Albert Einstein
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Hamilton
Amelia Earhart
Andrew Carnegie
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Audie Murphy
Babe Ruth
Barack Obama
Barbara Bush
Benjamin Franklin
Bill Clinton
Bill Cosby (William Henry Cosby, Jr.)
Bill Gates
Billy Graham
Bob Hope
Brett Favre
Carl Sagan
Cesar Chavez
Charles Lindbergh
Christopher Reeve
Chuck Yeager
Clint Eastwood
Colin Powell
Condoleezza Rice
Donald Trump
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Eleanor Roosevelt (Anna Eleanor Roosevelt)
Ellen DeGeneres
Elvis Presley
Frank Sinatra
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Frederick Douglass
George H. W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Lucas
George Patton
George Washington
George Washington Carver
Harriet Ross Tubman
Harry Truman
Helen Keller
Henry Ford
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Howard Hughes
Hugh Hefner
Jackie Robinson (Jack Roosevelt Robinson)
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jesse Owens
Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Stewart
John Edwards
John Glenn
John F. Kennedy
John Wayne
Johnny Carson (John William Carson)
Jonas Edward Salk
Joseph Smith Jr.
Katharine Hepburn
Lance Armstrong
Laura Bush
Lucille Ball
Lyndon B. Johnson
Madonna (Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone)
Malcolm X (Malcolm Little)
Marilyn Monroe
Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
Martha Stewart
Martin Luther King Jr.
Maya Angelou
Mel Gibson
Michael Jackson
Michael Jordan
Michael Moore
Muhammad Ali (Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.)
Neil Alden Armstrong
Nikola Tesla
Oprah Winfrey
Pat Tillman
Dr. Phil McGraw
Ray Charles
Richard Nixon
Robert Kennedy
Ronald Reagan
Rosa Parks
Rudolph W. Giuliani
Rush Limbaugh
Sam Walton
Steve Jobs
Steven Spielberg
Susan B. Anthony
Theodore Roosevelt
Thomas Edison
Thomas Jefferson
Tiger Woods
Tom Cruise
Tom Hanks
Walt Disney
Wrights Brothers (Orville & Wilbur Wright)
I had really mixed feelings about a couple of these. Richard Nixon, for instance, was a generally unlikable human being, prolonged the Vietnam war, and a delusional paranoid criminal in office, but he also normalized relations with China and created the Environmental Protection Agency. Bill Gates has changed our whole economy and raised the standard for intelligent philanthropy, but it’s too soon to tell his “balance.“
Any suggestions for names to add, or subtract from the list?
I’m not sure whether the format of this show originated with the CBC, but we had The Greatest Canadian last year. It was a great series, serious discussions, great participation through the country, and while I didn’t totally agree with the outcome (I was pulling for Lester B. Pearson,) the top 10 by votes were:
1 Tommy Douglas
2 Terry Fox
3 Pierre Elliott Trudeau
4 Sir Frederick Banting
5 David Suzuki
6 Lester B. Pearson
7 Don Cherry
8 Sir John A. Macdonald
9 Alexander Graham Bell
10 Wayne Gretzky
I would have left off Don Cherry and Wayne Gretzky, but life is not all serious stuff, and Wayne certainly is a “great” Canadian in many ways.Posted by WeeDram on 06/10/05 at 07:48 AMYes. Carl Sagan should definitely be removed from your list. He is a much less significant figure than JFK, Bill Clinton or even Jackie Robinson (who I believe was the first black baseball player to play in the major leagues). His contributions to American society were basically writing some popular books, and aiding the space agency. Hardly one of the greatest americans of all time. In sixty years, I would bet that he is almost entirely forgotten. It’s especially telling that you ommitted Cesar Chavez (the next name). I don’t disagree with this decision, but you would be hard pressed to make an argument for excluding Chavez and including Sagan.
I think that eliminating Bill Gates, but keeping Carnegie makes little sense. Both were incredibly successful monopolists, whose products and business popularized the use of society-transforming products (PC’s and oil). Both have left enormous charitable legacies, though Gates’ is substantially bigger in real terms, and likely to grow much larger before he dies. In the next several years alone, Gates’ antimalaria and anti-AIDS programs in Africa and India are likely to save hundreds of thousands of lives.
I would probably add the inventors of the transistor, John Dewey, John von Neumann, and Oliver Wendall Holmes, though that’s hardly an exhaustive list.
Posted by Lucas on 06/10/05 at 04:10 PMCanada: Not Michael J. Fox?
I would have no idea how to make an exhaustive list. Worse, it would change with my mood! And on the definition of “exhaustive.“ And “Greatest.“ And on what the meaning of “is” is.
OK, you are right about Bill Gates. His name is hereby made bold in this coment: Bill Gates for exactly the reasons you mentioned.
Sagan may not “belong” on the list but he was a poet-spokesman for science and rationality during the Age of Aquarius / NewAge garbage that seemed to have taken over the American mind. He is also one of the first to raise the alarm about global warming. Many, many working scientists owe the start of their careers to the inspiration of his “popular books.“ If he is forgotten in sixty years, hopefully it will be because someone else is doing what he did, only better.
One thing that distinguishes Edison from the team of Bardeen, Shockley, and Brittain (inventors of the transistor) is that Edison practically created the idea of institutional corporate research. They were walking in his footprints.
Posted by george.w on 06/10/05 at 08:57 PM
Next entry: Thunder-blogging
Previous entry: Early summer in our city