1. The Matrix trilogy –
The movie comes across as a parable that is comprehensible to the discerning. The craftiness with which the fiction (that reality is an illusion device that has been designed to effectively trick people into thinking it is true when it is really a trap) in it has been put together lends viability to the concepts in the movie. Add to that some compelling action and a mind warping unraveling and the Matrix trilogy is a movie that you simply must see.
2. Life is beautiful –
The brilliance of this movie in bringing out the power of preserving childlike innocence to bring out the best in trying times leaves you amazed. The story that revolves around a father son relationship in the aftermath of the second world war is possibly the simplest story ever used in a movie that effortlessly achieves such poignancy. This movie is another must see.
3. Marie curie –
“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.”
The Polish-French physicist’s (and chemist) work on radioactivity gave the emergence of women as significant contributors to science renewed thrust. Marie Curie was the first person to receive two Nobel Prizes, the first female professor at the University of Paris and the first woman to be enshrined in France’s national mausoleum, the Paris Panthéon, on her own merits.
4. Princess Diana –
“Everyone needs to be valued. Everyone has the potential to give something back”
Loved and revered by the public in her time, her campaign to ban landmines won her a Nobel peace prize. She also greatly committed to charity work – a principle that has by example influenced the philosophy of both her sons, Prince Harry and future King, Prince William.
5. Tim Berners-Lee –
In 1989, he started the world wide web, building the basic framework ( A web browser, a web editor and a web server) that facilitates internet functionality – something that continues to shower millions of benefits on netizens around the globe.
6. Milton Friedman –
Economist Milton Friedman’s push for low taxation, limited government and free markets shaped the dominant models for design of economic policies during the Reagan era. His defining moment came with his reasoning that steady, moderate growth in the money supply would produce steady economic growth, and that inflation is caused when people have a lot of money to spend, but there aren’t enough products to buy. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics in 1976.
7. Martin Luther King, Jr –
King lead a concerted effort to eliminate segregation between blacks and whites in southern US states. He took after Mahatma Gandhiji’s methods and advocated peaceful objection and protest. He was awarded the Nobel prize in 1964 prior to his assassination in 1968. His contributions to the movement against racism remain invaluable.
8. Nelson Mandela –
Most noted for his work to end apartheid, a policy that separated blacks and whites in South Africa and denied blacks the right to vote, Mandela was imprisoned in 1964 for his aggressive opposition to South Africa’s racist government and was held for 26 years. In 1990, after his release, Mandela was elected President of the African National Congress. In 1993 he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end apartheid.
9. Christianity –
Yes, this is a religion practiced by billions, but that is not how it changed the world. The first healthcare and welfare programs were the work of christian missionaries and this stood for many years since the first. Also, the totalitarian church in early times instigated a scientific revolution without which many scientific discoveries would not have been made. It influenced the spheres of art and some other disciplines in a similar, but less dramatic fashion than it did science. Not to mention, the bible teaches some of the best lessons in going through life and all it’s obstacles and remains, to this day, the highest selling book.
10. Penicillin –
This phenomenal discovery that gave rise to vaccines that brought us back from brink of extinction when small pox had been doing the rounds was arguably the linchpin of the medical revolution. Back then, it was believed that small pox was punishment for people who sinned and was wrought upon the world to persecute the sinners. To this day, vaccines play an important role in immunization without which man, for his frail constitution, would not last very long without developing a complication or deficiency.
So that’s it for this installment. Sound off in the comments below.