Here’s a diverting thought experiment for the day after that horrific “debate”. Who were the most influential people in the last millennium?
The question is germane because Johannes Gutenberg, the subject of today’s #stampoftheday, is considered to be among the most important, if not the most important, person on that list.
Gutenberg, of course, was the first westerner to print a book using moveable type, which he did in 1452. The 500th anniversary of that achievement was honored in a 3-cent stamp, issued on September 30 1952. Careful readers may notice I wrote he was the first “westerner” to print a book using moveable type. According to an article on history.com, sometime around the mid-11th century, a Chinese alchemist named Pi Sheng developed a system of individual character types made from a mixture of baked clay and glue. Metal movable type was later used in Korea to create the “Jikji,” a collection of Zen Buddhist teachings, that was first published in 1377, some 75 years before Gutenberg printed his first Bibles.
But Gutenberg clearly led the way in the west, not only by adapting the screw-press but also by creating type pieces from a combination of metals, developing oil-based ink, and producing softer and more absorbent paper. These inventions revolutionized communication and book production, leading to the spread of knowledge which set the stage for the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, and the Industrial Revolutions. (They also fostered the creation of both People Magazine and the National Inquirer, which together have played a major role in bringing civilization to the pinnacle it achieved last night.)
The advances in the arts, sciences, industry, etc. are major accomplishments. (One might even say they were “huge.”) In fact, in the late 1990s, as the millennium was drawing to a close, a variety of historian and writers said Gutenberg’s printing press (and related advancements) may have been the most important invention of the previous 1,000 years. Illustratively, in a 1998 book, four prominent U.S. journalists -Barbara Bowers, Agnes Hooper Gottlieb, Brent Bowers, and Henry Gottlieb – used a five-part scoring system based to identify and then rank 1,000 men and women who shaped the millennium. Gutenberg finished first in their system, which assessed (1) Lasting influence, (2) Effect on the sum total of wisdom and beauty, (3) Influence on contemporaries, (4) Uniqueness and (5) Charisma.
Gutenberg he had some tough competition, coming in just ahead of (in order): Christopher Columbus, Martin Luther, Galileo Galilei, William Shakespeare, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Thomas Aquinas, Leonardo da Vinci, and Ludwig van Beethoven. For what it’s worth, the first non-Westerner on their list (at #12) was Mohandas K. Gandhi; the first woman (at #31) was Elizabeth I of England; and the first Black person (at #56) was Martin Luther King, Jr. In case you think that was rigged, in 1997, Time-Life magazine picked Gutenberg’s invention as the most important of the second millennium. And perhaps even more tellingly, in 1999, the A&E Network ranked Gutenberg the No. 1 most influential person of the second millennium on their “Biographies of the Millennium” countdown.
These assessments were consistent with the judgement rendered about a century earlier by Mark Twain (who had some familiarity with the power of the printed word). Writing on the occasion of the opening of the Gutenberg Museum in Germany in 1900, Twain noted: “All the world acknowledges that the invention of Gutenberg is the greatest event that secular history has recorded.”
Twain went on to detail the many benefits and downsides of Gutenberg’s invention, writing:
“Gutenberg’s achievement created a new and wonderful earth, but at the same time also a new hell….
It found truth astir on earth and gave it wings; but untruth also was abroad, and it was supplied with a double pair of wings.
Science was found lurking in corners, much prosecuted; Gutenberg’s invention gave it freedom on land and sea and brought it within reach of every mortal.
Arts and industries, badly handicapped, received new life. Religion, which, during the Middle Ages, assumed tyrannical sway, was transformed into a friend and benefactor of mankind.
On the other hand, war, which was conducted on a comparatively small scale, became almost universal through this agency. Gutenberg’s invention, while having given to some national freedom, brought slavery to others.
It became the founder and protector of human liberty, and yet it made despotism possible where formerly it was impossible.
What the world is to-day, good and bad, it owes to Gutenberg.” And, Twain concluded, “the bad that his colossal invention has brought about is overshadowed a thousand times by the good with which mankind has been favored.”
All these forces, of course, have been amplified and accelerated in our current digital age, which means we have to be more alert and work even harder to ensure that our current technologies advance and protect freedom and human liberty and do not facilitate slavery and despotism, particularly in place where “formerly it was impossible.”
Be well, stay safe, fight for justice (and freedom and liberty), and work for peace.