What's the greatest tragedy in history?

[waradmiral]

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so."

ronald regan

[Titanic]

Americas very lucky rise to power. They have killed millions of people directly and indirectly through their actions, and the ignorance of a country which is so powerful is so dangerous. A lot of things they have done in the past have been terrible, they are doing terrible things at the moment, and this will probably continue on until the near future at least.

[Minister Masket]

Americas very lucky rise to power. They have killed millions of people directly and indirectly through their actions, and the ignorance of a country which is so powerful is so dangerous. A lot of things they have done in the past have been terrible, they are doing terrible things at the moment, and this will probably continue on until the near future at least.

And there was me thinking you would choose to post about a certain ship...

[Jenos Ridan]

The purge in the USSR one of the greatest tragedies in history? Give me a break, its nothing compared to the Holocaust, mass genocides in Rwanda etc.

In terms of sheer numbers of dead, yes. In terms of ruthlessness, just ahead of the Holocaust. The Holocaust, however, has the virtue of being the most heinous case of ethnic cleasing in human history to date. Both also went on for decades. The genocide in Rwanda is piddling in this form of comparison. For the most part, Stalin's purges and Hitler's Holocaust are more or less equal. WWII was perhaps the greatest period of mass annihilation in history and might well remain as such for some time. That is, untill WWIII comes around.....

[muy_thaiguy]

The worst event in human history eh? Napolean Dynamite. (joke, but still a horrible movie). Probably the rise of Communism would be the top one.

[muy_thaiguy]

The purge in the USSR one of the greatest tragedies in history? Give me a break, its nothing compared to the Holocaust, mass genocides in Rwanda etc.

In terms of sheer numbers of dead, yes. In terms of ruthlessness, just ahead of the Holocaust. The Holocaust, however, has the virtue of being the most heinous case of ethnic cleasing in human history to date. Both also went on for decades. The genocide in Rwanda is piddling in this form of comparison. For the most part, Stalin's purges and Hitler's Holocaust are more or less equal. WWII was perhaps the greatest period of mass annihilation in history and might well remain as such for some time. That is, untill WWIII comes around.....

Have to agree there, someof the ways the people were killed were a bit graphic at the very least.

[Jenos Ridan]

The worst event in human history eh? Napolean Dynamite. (joke, but still a horrible movie). Probably the rise of Communism would be the top one.

Agreed.

[sam_levi_11]

napolean dynamite sucks, exept where hes riding and gets hit with the brick, thats funny

[muy_thaiguy]

napolean dynamite sucks, exept where hes riding and gets hit with the brick, thats funny

Not so much, only decent part of that movie (stretching it I know) is when the cow gets shot in front of those kids.

[The1exile]

French colonisation of America.

[muy_thaiguy]

French colonisation of America.

How about the French in general?

[The1exile]

French colonisation of America.

How about the French in general?

Nah, the french being french has led to hours of entertainment, led by the great Al Murray.

[muy_thaiguy]

French colonisation of America.

How about the French in general?

Nah, the french being french has led to hours of entertainment, led by the great Al Murray.

They have had their good points, though very rarely in the last hundered years.

[Guiscard]

I would actually have to go with the Holocaust in terms of pure pre-meditated and cold-blooded slaughter.

[EvilPurpleMonkey]

Well, perhaps there are no great tragedy's. WWII resulted in 60 million deaths. The greatest loss of life that ever happened, but nowadays the population is rapidly increasing, 6 billion already. In 100 years WWII will just be a faint memory, as are all the other "tragedy's" that happened a few hundred years ago. I think that the only way something could be a real tragedy would be if it were a personal tragedy that affected everyone, like all out total war with everyone, or a world wide epidemic. Well, this probably doesn't make a lot of sense, so I'll just shut up now.

[muy_thaiguy]

Well, perhaps there are no great tragedy's. WWII resulted in 60 million deaths. The greatest loss of life that ever happened, but nowadays the population is rapidly increasing, 6 billion already. In 100 years WWII will just be a faint memory, as are all the other "tragedy's" that happened a few hundred years ago. I think that the only way something could be a real tragedy would be if it were a personal tragedy that affected everyone, like all out total war with everyone, or a world wide epidemic. Well, this probably doesn't make a lot of sense, so I'll just shut up now.

2 words, Black Death. Devastated Europe, North Africa, Middle East, China and India. 1/3 of Europe wiped out. Not exactly done by people, but people were still the victims. Whats worse is, it's still around and as deadly as it ever was. It STILL haunts people to this day.

[vtmarik]

The most major tragedy that comes to mind first would be the crash of the Hindenburg, followed by the Plague, Ebola, and the loss of three lives from the Apollo 1 tragedy.

In my mind a tragedy is an occurrence that had no overriding motive.

Events such as the Rape of Nanking and Pearl Harbor are not tragedies, but are rather acts of savagery and murder.

A car skidding off the road and sinking to the bottom of a river is a tragedy. A car being driven off the road intentionally to kill its occupant(s) is murder.

[luns101]

While it's hard to argue against the Holocaust, I believe the worst tragedy in modern times was when Pol Pot murdered approximately 1/3 of the Cambodian people and enslaved thousands more with force labor camps.

[misterman10]

When greasemonkey stopped working

[Skoffin]

It's hard to pick the greatest tragedy, people have so many different perspectives of it. Some could pick solely on amount of deaths, others go by the end result, how it affected things afterwards etc.. As for the holocause what I think was a greater tragedy was what happened in the years after the war. Millions of germans were raped, tortured and murdered by the victors who claimed to be the 'good guys', this really shows how low humanity can be.

Although some tragedys you can help but laugh at, like The Sicilian Expedition back around 413BC. Oh Athens, you dug your own grave and flung yourselves into it >>
Oooh and if you asked a ancient Athenian this, they'd probably say The Plague which carried off 1/3 of their population and their greatest leader, Pericles <<


Although for now I think the greatest tragedy in history is I CAN'T FIND ANY DAMN SOCKS!

[dcowboys055]

2 words, Black Death.

I agree! The plague not only destroyed a third of Europe, it caused people to turn on their own siblings, parents, friends, and family. It led to horrible means of trying to get rid of the plague (burning people alive, hanging, stabbing through the heart and all sorts of ridiculous voodoo), and exile for millions of people, as well as a loss of faith in religion when they found it couldn't cure their problems.

....so yeah. The plague.

[Honibaz]

My definition of tragedy is an event or events that causes any type of unneccesary loss in any part(s) of the Universe(but mostly refers to Earth)such as logging (destruction of environment) and war (death of living things especially humans).

Honibaz

[Neutrino]

Hmmm, worst tragedy in history; probably the rise of Capitalism.

The emphasis placed on personal wealth and greed by Capitalism has certainly done almost incalcuable damage to native cultures and environments, the world over.
Although humanity advanced very quickly, technologicaly under Capitalism, this great pyramid of knowledge is built on the suffering of the underclasses and the exploitation of native peoples and their resources.

[Jenos Ridan]

Well, perhaps there are no great tragedy's. WWII resulted in 60 million deaths. The greatest loss of life that ever happened, but nowadays the population is rapidly increasing, 6 billion already. In 100 years WWII will just be a faint memory, as are all the other "tragedy's" that happened a few hundred years ago. I think that the only way something could be a real tragedy would be if it were a personal tragedy that affected everyone, like all out total war with everyone, or a world wide epidemic. Well, this probably doesn't make a lot of sense, so I'll just shut up now.

Go look up the lyrics for Rust In Peace.....Polaris. Or for Dawn Patrol. No, both. Yes, both. A 'good' war will help things nicely .

[Skittles!]

Obviously people are so stunted by Humanity that they can only think of things like deaths of Humans.

Why doesn't anyone here actually care about the damn enviroment and its history?

Humanity isn't the most important thing on this earth, if any of you thought about it. Our petty 'history' is pathetic compared to what we've done to natural history.