I think this argument needs to be treated with caution. I think it's possible to write bad code on top of almost any mechanism. Certainly I've seen my share of

I think this argument needs to be treated with caution. I think it's possible to write bad code on top of almost any mechanism. Certainly I've seen my share of bizarre C++ template shenanigans (bad) but I've also been able to reuse other people's really well written container classes rather than roll my own, all with strong type safety (good). Everyone will make their own decisions about generics. Personally I find the risk of "bad generics magic" to be more tolerable than "endless shitty workarounds for not having generics".