Which person has had the greatest impact on the course of the 21st century so far? Alf Henriksen, Odense, Denmark
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Readers reply
The inventor of the internet, Tim Berners-Lee. SignificantOther
Vinton Cerf and Bob Kahn invented the internet (TCP/IP). Berners-Lee developed HTML, the URL system and HTTP (the “world wide web”). CaressOfSteel
A good case to be made for the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. Although he died in 1997, his policies of economic growth, private enterprise and Chinese participation in the world economy and politics fundamentally changed the world. Hundreds of millions escaped poverty in China, the balance of economic and political power changed, China was well on the way to becoming a world superpower, and “ordinary” Chinese people could travel, internally and abroad, for the first time since the Communist party came to power. But Deng also maintained the supremacy of the party, backed by the People’s Liberation Army, to suppress popular movements, including Tiananmen Square – a precursor to the spread of autocracy and the decline of democracy in the 21st century. BILLADIE
Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman. They invented the technology for mRNA that is the reason we have a Covid vaccine. Without it, we’d all still be in lockdown with bodies piling up in the morgues and the world economy crashed. Putin is another warlord, Trump was awful for four years, but for a lot of people around the world neither of them had or have any direct effect. More than 5.5 billion people have had the Covid vaccine. And that’s just the start of what mRNA vaccines can do. MariefromON
Unfortunately, Rupert Murdoch. ringolorenzo
Nick Clegg. His decision to reverse Lib Dem policy on tuition fees as part of the UK coalition government (2010-15) led directly to the collapse of the Lib Dem vote in the 2015 general election. David Cameron thus won an absolute majority for the Conservatives with just 36.8% of the vote and had to honour the pledge to hold the Brexit referendum in 2016. His awful campaign for remain and the “expert-free” campaign by Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage led to leave winning a majority. Farage thus had the confidence to inspire Trump supporters into the belief that he could, against the odds, win the US presidential election in 2016. Trump’s later toadying up to Putin gave him the confidence to continue Russia’s expansion in the Middle East and Africa and lately the ill-judged invasion of Ukraine. None of this would have happened if Nick Clegg had not reversed tuition fee policy. Robert Thompson
I would go with Pope John Paul II, for his encyclical against artificial birth control. David Cutts
Osama bin Laden. The 9/11 attacks led to two wars that lasted decades and saw FBI resources redirected to combating terrorism (often where it did not exist) just as it needed the resources to investigate the problems and criminality that brought about the 2008 financial crisis. This led to a global recession, the application of austerity and the impoverishment of millions in the UK and billions globally. This led to a number of divisions in society, which contributed to conspiracy theories, fake news and paranoia that led to epochal events such as Brexit and the election of Trump, as well as other demagogues across the world. And he pulled this off from the desert. Tobias Waters
There is no doubt in my mind that hindsight will tell us that Greta Thunberg could and should have had the greatest impact. Sadly, the shortsighted, power-hungry Tory politicians have sold themselves to the ageing baby boomers, who hold such temporary sway. They sold the future of our planet for their little bit of power. Karin
Donald Trump. He has shown to the entire world the means by which evil can triumph and how politicians can outpace the reach of law. The result has been an immediate collapse of human decency, a sharp rise in cruelty and a hastening of planetary destruction. Impressive! easong, harrietpete, GGGreen
Putin, because without his support we would never have had Trump. craigmck
George W Bush, when he went into Iraq. Still dealing with the aftermath now, and probably will for a few more decades. VirgilKane
Whoever it was in the west who decided it was a good idea to back the mujahideen after the Soviet Union went into Afghanistan. The law of unintended consequences, with regard to the disintegration of the USSR, 9/11, Afghanistan and the Middle East (including the military interventions and refugee crisis), has a domestic and international impact to this day. OwenOfMugsborough
Ronald Reagan, for directly and indirectly causing many of the 21st century’s biggest events. Two of his nominations for the supreme court (Rehnquist and Scalia) were crucial to the decision in Bush v Gore; the Bush administration’s response to the possibility of terrorist attacks then played a hand in 9/11.
More than a decade later, Reagan’s charm and policies gave rise to new faces in the Republican party, including, but not limited to, Donald Trump. Trump’s electoral victory in 2016 gave momentum to populists and autocrats, bringing the future of global democracy into question. His loss in 2020 would lead to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, and his nominations for the supreme court would go on to overturn Roe v Wade. The US’s foreign policy during the Trump presidency emboldened Vladimir Putin, who would launch a war on Ukraine in 2022, and Xi Jinping, who has repeatedly stated his intentions for Taiwan.
By redefining American conservatism and indirectly giving power to some of the most important men of this century, Reagan changed the US and the world for ever. Amaan Bhimani
Blythe Masters, who pioneered the credit default swap. The 2008 recession was not only one of the most significant events of the 21st century so far, but it has had a long tail of effects including the era of low interest rates, incredible house-price rises, venture capital funds investing in risky ventures, and even Brexit. TheSpoonCarver
Speaking as a lifelong solipsist, I can say with absolute confidence that, of course, it’s me. Others may think it’s them; but those people ought to consider that they probably don’t exist outside my head. And even if they did, they’d still be wrong. ThereisnoOwl
That woman who put a cat in a bin. beerhunter
