“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” It’s a common phrase, probably one you’ve
heard many times before, and for a good reason. We’ve all started a course of action that
we thought would be beneficial for ourselves or the people around us, but ended up blowing
up in our faces. Thankfully, for many of us, these actions
probably didn’t cause millions of deaths. The same cannot be said for the five men we’re
discussing today – each of which wanted to do some kind of good for the world, but
ended up making it a worse place for everyone in it. These men have a collective body count well
into the tens of millions, but you might be surprised to find out how they got there. First up, we’ve got… 5. Alfred Nobel – The Father of Dynamite
If you feel like that name rings a bell, don’t worry, we’ll get to that. Alfred Nobel was a Swedish Chemist whose scientific
discovery helped define the nineteenth century – at least in terms of how they blew stuff
up. Before Nobel came along, gunpowder was the
world’s explosive compound of choice, and had been for several hundred years. But here’s the problem: Gunpowder was old
hat, and while it was a stable chemical compound, for everything from warfare to industrial
applications, the world needed something that could pack way more of a punch. That’s where the miracle of nitroglycerin
came along – a significantly more powerful explosive concoction. Here’s the big problem, though: Unlike gunpowder,
nitroglycerin wasn’t stable in the slightest, and was the frequent cause of deadly, explosive
accidents. Few people knew this better than Alfred Nobel,
whose brother Emil was killed in a nitroglycerin explosion at one of his father’s factories. This motivated Alfred to direct his intelligence
and energies towards a noble goal: Creating a new compound that could pack the explosive
punch of nitroglycerin, but had the stability of gunpowder, preventing accidents like the
one that killed his brother from ever happening again. But, from the title of this video, you know
this story doesn’t have a happy ending. In 1867, Alfred happened upon diatomaceous
earth, a porous sedimentary rock that had an extremely interesting property: It could
absorb nitroglycerin. While the resulting compound was still terrifyingly
explosive, it was stable, making it the wonder-bomb that the warmongers and industrialists of
the world needed. Nobel, ecstatic with his new creation, decided
to give it the name “dynamite” – derived from the Greek word dynamis, literally meaning
“power.” But Alfred, being a perfectionist, didn’t
stop there. As the years progressed and dynamite became
a household name, he created an even more powerful and deadly version in 1875 – by
mixing nitroglycerin and nitrocellulose. Dynamite would later become synonymous with
cowboys and prospectors, but perhaps its most iconic usage was in war, where it was used
to blow countless people into kingdom come. Alfred had wanted to create an invention that
would prevent unnecessary deaths, like his brother’s, and had instead created a tool
of mass murder. The man became so synonymous with facilitating
violence in his time that, when he was mistakenly declared dead, the headline of his obituary
read “The Merchant of Death Is Dead.” Okay, we weren’t actually being totally
honest with you earlier: This story does kind of have a happy ending. Alfred Nobel was deeply affected by his premature
obituary, realising that his legacy was violence and warfare. This inspired him to use his blood-money to
found the Nobel Prize, which intended to reward the best of humanity rather than commemorating
the worst. Sadly for a lot of people, the next entry
on this list wasn’t quite as philanthropic with his wealth… 4. Henry Ford – Hitler’s Role Model
If ever you’ve been on the open road in your life, you’ve seen a Ford. From the Model T to the Mustang, Ford is one
of the most iconic automotive brands in American history. Statistically, a lot of the car owners watching
this video probably own or have owned a Ford car at some point in their adult life. They’re just that common. The Ford Motor Company had a major role in
building up the automotive industry in the United States, massively bolstering the American
economy and providing millions of jobs to hard-working Americans for over a hundred
years. Born to humble beginnings on a farm in 1863,
Henry Ford pursued a career in business and engineering, allowing him to found the Ford
Motor Company in 1903. After five years of research and development,
they produced and released the iconic Model T, which rocked the automotive world and helped
bring vehicles like this to the masses – with standardised parts and assembly line innovations
allowing them to be built far cheaper than other cars on the market, without sacrificing
quality. He was also a magnanimous boss, paying employees
$5 a day – which was seen as insanely generous back in 1914. So, you’re probably wondering: This is the
good side of this iconic American industrialist, but where does the evil come in? Well, a famous slogan for the Model T was
that you could have it in any colour you like, as long as it’s black. Henry Ford didn’t extend this same attitude
towards people, though, as he was an avowed racist and Anti-Semite. That’s right – even for the early 20th
century’s standards, Henry Ford was considered a massive bigot. There wasn’t an antisemitic conspiracy theory
he didn’t buy into, and he was a vocal proponent of the American Eugenics Movement that was
picking up steam at the time. Holding these views would be problematic in
its own right, but it strays into deadly territory when you meet Ford’s biggest fan: Adolf
Hitler. Hitler found Ford’s insane levels of bigotry
inspirational, to the point where he quoted them in his infamous book, Mein Kampf. Having this powerful, beloved American icon
on his side helped offer the budding genocidal dictator a sense of international legitimacy,
and some sources report that Hitler was interested in helping Ford to become, in his own words,
“the leader of the growing Fascist movement in America.” Ford’s wilful spreading of antisemitic propaganda
helped lay the groundwork for the Nazi atrocities that were to follow. 3. Winston Churchill – Scourge of India
From Nazis, to one of the world’s most famous and cherished Nazi-fighters: The bulldog-faced,
cigar-chomping, iron-willed Winston Churchill – England’s legendary prime minister during
World War II, and one of the most well-known faces of the allied forces. When people think of Churchill, they think
of his inspirational radio addresses – like his famous “We will fight them on the beaches”
speech – and his razor-sharp wit. Churchill was infinitely quotable, with nuggets
of wisdom like "To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to change often” and “Courage
is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities because it has been said, it is the quality
which guarantees all others.” Churchill saved England from the terrifying
Nazis forces in its darkest hour, while the country was being bombed and the Third Reich
began to claim more and more of Europe on its rampage to rule the Western World. His part in orchestrating the legendary invasion
of Normandy by Allied Forces, and liberating France from their brutal Nazi occupiers, has
earned him a permanent legacy as a hero to many. While he fell out of favour after the end
of World War II, it’s hard to find somebody who’ll tell you that Winston Churchill didn’t
help pull Great Britain – and perhaps even Western Europe – from one of their most
dire struggles in modern history. Unless, of course, you’re in India. While Churchill’s goal of defeating the
Nazis was undeniably a noble one, some of his methods for securing that win helped facilitate
the horrible ends of millions of innocent lives. To be more specific, the Bengal Famine of
1943 was a national tragedy that left over three million Indians dead from starvation. There were a number of factors believed to
be involved in causing this famine: Drought, crop infection, and Burma – which was a
major source of rice imports for the Indian people – falling into the hands of the Japanese. However, more recent evidence shows that Winston
Churchill likely had a hand in causing this tragedy. Indian journalist Madhushree Mukerjee found
compelling evidence that there would have still been enough supplies to feed the Bengal
region, were it not for the decisions of Winston Churchill’s wartime cabinet. Because India was still under British colonial
rule during the 1940s, they were still controlled by the British government – and, as a result,
the British government had full control over all their resources. Churchill diverted so many of these resources
to the allied war effort that he left over three million Indians to starve. And to add insult to injury, he blamed this
mass starvation on the Indian people, attributing the lack of resources in India to the fact
that the Indian people – in his own words – bred like rabbits. Yikes. 2. Albert Einstein – Uncle of the Atomic Bomb
This is a man who is practically synonymous with the very concept of science, and is up
there with Isaac Newton, Nikola Tesla, and Bill Nye on the list of “scientists who
became household names.” He made gravity waves with his general theory
of relativity, his answer to the mystery of the photoelectric effect, and his evidence
for atomic theory. His contributions to science were so great
that he won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921, and has inspired multiple generations
of children to pursue knowledge for the betterment of mankind. Not too shabby for a bored former patent officer. He did, however, make one terrible mistake
that went on to cause hundreds of thousands of deaths, and cause an ongoing threat to
the continuation of modern civilisation even today. As World War II was reaching a fever pitch
in 1939, Albert Einstein was signing his name to one of the most dangerous letters in human
history. Despite being a pacifist, Einstein was one
of the many experts who feared that Nazi Germany was on course to develop the first atomic
bomb. As an exiled German Jew himself, Einstein
knew that, if they obtained such a weapon, there would be no mercy for anyone who dared
to defy them. In order to make sure that the allies weren’t
at a loss, the letter Einstein signed was begging the US Government to hasten their
own development of an atomic bomb, laying the groundwork for the Manhattan Project that
would later birth the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing hundreds of thousands
of innocent civilians. A quote often attributed to Einstein is, “I
do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought
with sticks and stones.” And sadly, we have Albert Einstein partly
to thank for that. 1. Gavrilo Princip – The World’s Deadliest
Assassin Perhaps the least well-known person on this
list, Gavrilo Princip was a teenage assassin with the best intentions who happened to kill
over 37,000,000 people with one magazine of handgun ammo. This Bosnian-Serb nationalist fired the bullets
that killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austria-Hungarian throne. Once again, to many modern Serbians, Princip’s
intentions were as pure and heroic as could be – freeing the Serbian people from the
iron-fisted rule of the Austria-Hungarian Empire and making a powerful statement about
Serbian independence. He and a gang of like-minded individuals orchestrated
a seemingly doomed assassination plan against the Archduke, that ended up putting Princip
right in the path of his oncoming vehicle. The skinny, 19-year-old Princip took his chance,
and blasted Ferdinand with his pistol until the Archduke was no more, standing his ground
against his beloved country’s tyrannical rulers. However, many credit the assassination of
the Archduke as the match that ignited a powder keg of European political tensions. The result of this? World War I, killing almost 40 million and
committing a generation of young people the world over to face horrific conditions in
dehumanising trench warfare. Literally millions of people dead from just
a handful of bullets and the most idealistic intentions, making Gavrilo Princip the deadliest
assassin who ever lived. If the people today have proven anything,
it’s that the purest intentions can still lead to the most nightmarish results – sometimes
due to malice, and other times, due to a simple lack of foresight. So, next time you have to make a major decision,
try to think a few steps ahead. Or, at the very least, try to keep in mind
who you might be stepping on. Check out “Shocking Study Reveals How Anyone
Can Be Evil” and “The Origin of Evil: The Devil” for more fascinating meditations
into the nature of all that is bad. And in the meantime, be nice, it’s really
the least you can do.
