May I quote from Rogue 9 14:53, 7 March 2006 (UTC) ? :
The problem is not you, Mr. Wales. The problem is the users who elevate you to the position of God-Emperor of the 'Pedia and cling to your every word as unquestionable edict, whether you will it or no.
On the more specific issue of attempting to force Wikipedians to come to perfect agreement, on the userbox issue or anything else, Justice Robert Jackson put it far better than I ever could in the Supreme Court majority opinion on West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette in 1943:
"Struggles to coerce uniformity of sentiment in support of some end thought essential to their time and country have been waged by many good as well as evil men. Nationalism is a relatively recent phenomenon but at other times and places the ends have been racial or territorial security, support of a dynasty or regime, and particular plans for saving souls. As first and moderate methods to attain unity have failed, those bent on its accomplishment must resort to an ever-increasing severity. As governmental pressure toward unity becomes greater, so strife becomes more bitter as to whose unity it shall be. Probably no deeper division of our people could proceed from any provocation than from finding it necessary to choose what doctrine and whose program public educational officials shall compel youth to unite in embracing. Ultimate futility of such attempts to compel coherence is the lesson of every such effort from the Roman drive to stamp out Christianity as a disturber of its pagan unity, the Inquisition, as a means to religious and dynastic unity, the Siberian exiles as a means to Russian unity, down to the fast failing efforts of our present totalitarian enemies.
Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard."
Emphasis mine (Rogue's).
There could be no better summation of Wikipedia's present situation. The case applied to public schools, and obviously the Wikimedia Foundation as a private entity is not bound by it in any way, but we would all do well to take the words of Justice Jackson to heart. Attempting to force Wikipedians to conform to one viewpoint on how best to run the encyclopedia (or how users must conduct themselves on their userpages as a subset of that, beyond only the basic rules we had before) will only create ever greater strife. I hope that the admins involved read this and perhaps reconsider their actions. Rogue 9 14:53, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
Hello from irismeister (banned for what, 5 years ? :-) !, Respectfully yours, happy to be here! Anti - totalitarian
Fri 28th April 2006, 8:38pm
