Youtubers: Who were the influencers of our ancestors?

Who were the influencers of our ancestors? How could they influence the life, way of thinking, or behavior of our ancestors?

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As we are freshly confined due to Covid-19 on March 24, 2020, Norman, Cyprien, and 80 other YouTubers called on us to respect the confinement. If they decided to form a single voice to ask us to respect this confinement, it is because they have a certain aura, an influence. 

The marketing definition of an influencer is as follows: a person who uses digital media to spread their opinions to internet users and is able to influence them to change their consumption habits. 

If we move beyond the purely commercial context of influence in the 21st century, it is interesting to understand that these YouTubers have authority in their field and thus have the power to influence their target audience. We find the greatest opinion leaders of our current society on our social networks (there are several tens of thousands), but who were the influencers of our ancestors? How could they influence the life, way of thinking, or behavior of our ancestors? 

Well-known influencers 

Imagine that there is a ranking of the greatest opinion leaders of all time. 

Students at the famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) revealed in 2015 a cultural ranking system (based on a large amount of data) to establish the list of the most influential personalities. Influence leaders who had an impact on the society in which they evolved, good or bad. 

It is possible to classify these personalities by categories: 

Religion, first, with Jesus Christ and his apostles, Muhammad, Moses, Martin Luther, and Buddha as true spiritual leaders, they are the best ranked in this list. Their principles still influence the lives of over 6 billion believers on Earth today. 

Politics, monarchy or democracy, it doesn't matter. Men and women at the head of a country greatly influence the way of life of their fellow citizens. For example, Julius Caesar, dictator for life; Louis XIV; Napoleon Bonaparte, responsible for a lasting reform of society and the French Civil Code, or Adolf Hitler, still considered today as a symbol of absolute evil. The Queen of England also influenced her people by supporting the importance of medicine. 

Authors, whether they are writers, philosophers, scientists, or economists, all have influenced the lives of billions of people through their writings. Isaac Newton is at the top of the ranking for founding classical mechanics and theorizing universal gravitation. Much earlier, Confucius was considered the first "educator" of China, a civilization that he still marks today. We can also mention Darwin and his work "On the Origin of Species" or Karl Marx and his critique of capitalism. 

Many other people have influenced our ancestors; they were military, explorers, or later, athletes, actors, or musicians... 

Influencers in our ancestors' villages

But how could our ancestors be influenced if they couldn't read? Or if they didn't have access to media? 

We ultimately find the same kind of categorization of opinion leaders in the small villages of our ancestors. 

Well yes, for a long time, priests had real influence on our ancestors. As long as they couldn't read, the sermons given at mass allowed the religious to influence the population with their ideas. The literacy campaign and the influence of teachers will, moreover, be detrimental to the Church, which sees our ancestors coming out of ignorance and capable of criticizing, thinking for themselves. 

Then, mayors, bosses, or doctors, better placed in the hierarchy of social classes, sometimes richer and more educated than peasants, could exercise their power of influence and decision more easily.  

In conclusion, the influencers of our ancestors had no secrets. They simply managed to create interactions, communities to which they successfully shared their power by building their own representation of the world...