http://www.reddit.com/r/whowouldwin...esident_of_the_united_states_vs_every/cf91sbd We should do writing prompts like this here.
I actually wasted the time to read the whole thing. I figured as awful as it was there had to be something funny, clever, or insightful at the end. Nope.
Back in high school one of our teachers put together a 64 person "greatest leader of all time" tournament. Each participant was assigned a leader and it was seeded like the tournament with the more accomplished, well known leaders taking the top seeds and the less accomplished taking the lower. Each person researched his or her leader, and then they would enter head to head debates where they would argue for why their leader was the greater of the two. At the end of each debate, the audience would vote on the winner. I think some dude with Catherine the Great ended up winning it all over Alexander the Great. It was fun to watch.
He had a much better grasp on her history. The tournament was based on all elements of leadership, not just military and conquering power. I think the Alexander the Great guy expected he could win without knowing his person very well just based on his military accomplishments.
Oh I know. I only went to the final debate. The class that did it was a year or two behind me, and I didn't feel like wasting my free period every other day to go watch. Probably would have been worth it, though I doubt it would be overly informative with high school students doing it. Would be much better in college, methinks.
Not often do I have to google a historical figure, so kudos to you on that. Good to see some affection for the Byzantines. It always drives me crazy someone starts spouting off about the decline of the Roman Empire, totally ignoring the fact that they just moved to the east, away from the decaying city of Rome.
