Dead People You’d Most Like to Meet — Pick Five

I know from meeting celebrities that they’re often different from what I expect — so that even if I know their work well, they themselves are surprising, and I come away with extra insight into who they are. This insight I later see in their public manner, as something previously hiding in plain sight. Though famous and accomplished people are experts at getting you to like them, and at presenting who they’d like to be, I believe it’s still possible, if you are attentive and willing to face the truth, to get something from actually meeting a person that’s not possible to get from the distance of a screen.

That said, if we were to go back and meet dead people, why meet John Lennon, when you have a pretty good idea of what he looked and sounded like, when you could meet Mozart, or Abraham Lincoln?

With that in mind, who are five dead people — NOT COUNTING YOUR OWN RELATIVES — that you would most like to meet? The circumstances are up to you. Maybe you want to meet Jesus and miraculously speak Aramaic. Maybe you can’t speak Aramaic and have to study before you take the trip. In any case, I think we should agree that the circumstances of each meeting is ideal, in the sense that you’d get to hang out, and outside time — at least in the sense that your visit won’t affect the course of history. Otherwise, you may be going back in time to tell Kennedy to leave on the bubble top.

On my own list, I’d pick Thomas Jefferson and Lincoln. Probably Samuel Johnson. Then I’d like to hold a couple in reserve. I probably wouldn’t want to meet Jesus, because that could just screw me up. I think I’d like to go to Rome and walk around the forum before it was in ruins . . . I’d have to give this some thought.

Anyway, what do you think?

http://blog.sfgate.com/mlasalle/2013/06/04/dead-people-youd-most-like-to-meet-pick-five/

Jesus
Henry the 8th
Cleopatra
Mohammad
Moses

1. Jerry Garcia
2. John Curtin
3. Neville Chamberlain/ Winston Churchill 1939
4. John Lennon
5. George Harrison

Edited by Joffa: 14/6/2013 08:11:50 PM

Edward III
My Uncle
Jesus of Nazareth
Kim Jong I'll
Hitler

Jesus?

Don't they need to be real historical people?

Genghis Khan
Bertrand Russel
Ayn Rand (so I could punch her in the cunt)
Rasputin
The last full blooded Neanderthal

As an atheist, I acknowledge the existence of Jesus. However, I don't believe the story's people tell about him. Interesting you don't even think he existed :lol:

There are some excellent books by Richard Carrier that brought me down on the side of concluding that there's really no evidence for historical Jesus, and was rather a culmination of local folk lore & pagan religions co-opted by Christianity.

Kurt Cobain
John Lennon
George Best
Marilyn Monroe
Bon Scott

Lucky he's only the most documented person in ancient history.

Interesting that you took the bait ;)

Michael Jackson
Elvis
Alexander the Great

Which documents?

Without turning this into another religious discussion between the two of us,
Roman records and several eye witness accounts to name some off the top of my head. It's a few years since I studied it, so names and details are escaping me. My interest in the topic isn't anywhere as strong as it used to be. Beer is much more interesting these days.

But just to make my point clear:
There is more written proof that Jesus of Nazareth walked the Earth than Julius Cesear, and his existence is not even in question.

I saw a refutation of the Jesus/Caesar thing recently. I'll see if I can find it.

Miyamoto Musashi

That's it.

Possibly some great great great great grandparents and or children.

-PB

Notor doesn't troll. He means what he says

Cheers! Maybe we should start a dedicated thread for such discussions rather than dragging many other threads into the same place :lol:

And it wasn't Julius Caesar iirc, it was another well known Roman figure that I can't remember.

Sometimes I troll, but I'm always pretty obvious. This one wasn't a troll though.

It was old mate Alex the Great (obviously not Roman) or Julz from memory.

I made a new thread.

Newton and Robert Hooke at the same time
Euler
Faraday
Galileo

Paul - so I can ask him if Jesus existed

Edited by chillbilly: 14/6/2013 11:31:50 PM

Kurt Cobain
George Best
Alexander the Great
Paul Grey
Jeff Buckley

i wouldn't want to meet most of the people that you guys have listed. i wouldn't feel like i was worth any of their time

What if you could take 1 person from any time period to any other time period In history, anywhere in there world, for 1 week?

For example, showing Jack the Ripper around Nazi Germany.
Or
Taking Ho Chi Min the Civil War USA.

Personally, I'd take Captain Cook to the Uruguay 05 game :lol:

Marilyn Munroe
Michael Jackson
Martin Luther King Junior
Harold Holt (I just want to know how he died!!)
One of the aboriginal men who saw the first fleet sail in.

i'd probably take a former great footballer and chuck him in a game now to see how he went compared to the current guys.

Adolf Hitler - I want to ask him what was up with the mustache.
Oscar Wilde - Who wouldn't want to have Oscar Wilde and Hitler in the same room?
Bill Shankley - For obvious reasons
Abraham Lincoln - So I could ask him what's with the beard...and the theater thing.
Charlie Chaplin - So I could ask him why he had Hitler's moustache

My grandfather
Muhammad PBUH
Gandhi
Matt Busby
Bill Shankly