Re: Can one life make a difference in the world?
Oh, it's possible alright. If Hitler would have been shot in WWI, then maybe we would be speaking Russian instead of English. Maybe the Berlin wall would still be standing if it wasn't for Gorbatsjov, and the Cold War would have ended. Maybe the Cuban missile crisis would have gone far worse if Kennedy hadn't won the election. We'd be either dead or living in a post apocalyptic world.
Fuck, if Rosa Parks didn't say no, we'd still be whipping people with other skin (no racism intended).
It's all the butterfly effect. Perhaps tomorrow, a doctor will be mugged and shot in NY, but perhaps he was thinking about a cure to Alzheimer's on his way home when he got shot. Perhaps if in the prehistory, some ape man didn't move quick enough to get out of the way of the giant mammoth, and be crushed to death, things would have been different. That slow caveman may be the distant ancestor of Osama Bin Laden, and the twin towers would still be standing.
Then again, if someone doesn't do it, someone else will. Hitler may have survived WWI, but perhaps there was even more evil shot instead of Hitler. If Gorbatsjov didn't break down the wall, perhaps another revolutionary person might have done it. If Rosa Parks didn't say anything and got on the back of the bus, perhaps some other African american would step up and break society. Someone else would have had access to the research of that doctor, and find the cure as well. And if Osama didn't attack the twin towers, perhaps someone else would have blown up the White House and half of DC with it.
Tl;dr: Mave is right, some people change the world, but if they wouldn't have done it, some else might have.