Dig deep enough, and every belief system ends up having some deep philosophical tenet which has to be taken on faith, because it’s impossible (or even contradictory!) to prove within the system itself. Even rationality.

After all, that evidence matters, or that we can know the universe (or facts) and hence logic can be useful, etc. can only be ‘proven’ using things like evidence, facts, and logic. And there are plausible arguments that can tear down elements of each of these, if we use other systems.

Ultimately, at some point we need to decide what we’re going to believe. Ideally, it’s something that works/doesn’t produce terrible outcomes, but since the future is fundamentally unpredictable and unknowable, that also requires a degree of faith eh?

And let’s not even get into the subjective nature of ‘terrible outcomes’, or how we would try to come up with some kind of score.

Linux has its benevolent dictator because it’s ‘needed it’, and by most accounts it has worked. Linus is less of a jerk than he has been. Which is nice.

Other projects have not had nearly as much success eh? How much of it is due to lack of Linus, and how much is due to other factors would be an interesting debate.