[Foundation-l] Verifiability: Constitution?

[Ray Saintonge]

Erik Moeller wrote:

>I am frankly disappointed whenever people want to
>support their arguments by asking for the help of Jimmy Wales or the
>Wikimedia Board. This suggests to me that their arguments are either
>wrong, or that they have not spent the effort to make them clear and
>understandable.
>  
>
I too am disappointed by those requests, but I would draw a more 
sinister conclusion.  It may have more to do with people being unwilling 
to accept responsibility for their own actions.  In the [[Milgram 
experiment]] the subjects would often turn to the experimenter for 
confirmation that they were doing the right thing when the voltage 
administered to the "learner" for wrong answers seemed too high.  If the 
experimenter indicated that he would take responsibility for anything 
that might go wrong with the experiment, the subject became willing to 
administer potentially fatal voltages in response to wrong answers.

Authority, even benign authority,  is antithetical to freedom of 
thought, and without free thought there can be neither free speech or 
free action.  When Jimbo's opinion is sought an appeal to authority is 
made.  When he answers it diminishes the freedom of the project.  It 
doesn't matter if his answer is perfectly sensible and logical; it is 
enough that it builds a pattern of authority and diminishes the 
questioner's acceptance of responsibility. 

Ec