In fact, the historic dude Kurt Vonnegut named the protagonist (even though he doesn't use protagonists or antagonists in his writing or philosophy) of his novel Deadeye Dick, Eugene Debs Hartke.
Eugene Debs is probably who Lennon was singing about when he performed (and wrote) Working Class Hero. He was a Harvard man who rallied for socialist causes and workers' rights all over the world.
Karl Marx might be a good dude, too, haha.
My Grandfather was named after him and Eugene Debs: Marx Eugene Manges. Noooo, his parents weren't good little German socialists or anything.... :-)
Anybody who tried to band together the largest immigrant settlements and brotherly collection in the United States, the German Midwest, was truly a hero. Anti German sentiments during both World Wars left the whole Midwest without a cultural heritage, and they only had one person fighting for they in the mines, they in the steel mills, they who constructed and toiled - Eugene Debs.
Thus, I nominate Eugene Debs one of the most important Dudes in history...
They keep you doped with religion and sex and TV...
I don't know...
Debs not only did hard time, but he was also a presidential candidate.
But then, he didn't have the opportunity to smoke weed...
Did he roll?
That must be exhausting.