And getting back to your original question, Ellen. Let's take a look at Joe Stalin. I think he was one man who made a huge difference...in that his extreme paranoia and ruthlessness resulted in the Communist Russian system descending into a monstrously destructive cycle of terror in the late 30's which led to internal purges which wiped out whole sectors of agrarian society and gutted the general staff of the armed forces. It was then interrupted by the attack of Nazi Germany, which eventually had the effect of uniting the Russian population against the external enemy, something Stalin would have been highly unlikely to achieve without such a huge external threat.

What I am saying here is that one man, Josef Stalin, succeeded in brutalizing the Russian system in an extraordinary way, and that was most unfortunate. It was a legacy that helped eventually destroy that system. Things could have been much better in Russia without Stalin.

Mao Tse Tung was also one man who made a very big difference, but that's a whole other discussion.

Martin Luther King was one man who made a very big difference, this time in the positive sense. As is often the case, he paid for it with his life.

- LH