Best 3 quotes of Ian F. Svenonius on MyQuotes

He beseeches us pitiably for funds, donations, alms, and oblations so as to grow and nourish his noble monolith. Called "Wikipedia," it's a publicly built superencyclopedia. It is our obligation to bankroll it, he says: without Wikipedia we would just revert to our former status of cave-men, larvae, algae, and scum.

Politics doesn’t require talent, intelligence, or good looks. Truly, someone like Donald Rumsfeld, a mediocre government functionary with no discernible talent, intelligence, or charm, is a greater international celebrity than Mick Jagger. Rumsfeld, despite being a has-been, is known in every corner of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa for his insanity and arrogance, while Jagger is admired by a mere couple hundred million music enthusiasts, huddled mostly in the First World.

Wiki also has a pseudoreligious aspect: it helps Internet users to give penance. For the droves of web addicts seeking to mortify their flesh after another sticky bout of D-listing, Perez Hilton, "12 Things to Do Before You're 25," "8 Reasons to Have a One-Night Stand," bath-salt hysteria, pressing "Like" buttons, or some other such nitwit distraction, Wikipedia is a Sunday-morning salve—for the lies, betrayals, and self-defeating debauchery which implicate each and every user of a computer, and for which we all feel shame, contempt, disgust, and chagrin.