In a post-9/11 world you can be sure that your refusal to comply with cabin crew instructions will be spun in such a way you'll be classified a terrorist.

I've never had a crew member TELL me to close it. I've had them ASK me to close it. Back when I had a terrible fear of flying, I used to explain why I didn't want to. And they said that was fine.

Exactly right. When I fly westbound transpac, I like the flights that arrive at my destination in the early evening -- I force myself to stay up and go to sleep my usual time. I can wake up the next morning ready to go. To do that, I prefer the shades open as it makes it seem like one very long day.

Those who want to sleep, can. I have no trouble sleeping on a plane with the shades up, and for those who can't there are eye shades. As for IFE, it's perfectly visible shades up (though if the sun is shining directly on the screen, that's a different story and I would lower my shade to avoid it). Unless you're in international F, long-haul commercial air travel is, at best, not particularly comfortable or pleasant. Small and relatively inexpensive personal adjustments, such as eyeshades, headphones and tablets, make it more bearable without demanding that others discomfort themselves.

I love the scenery and always try to sit on the "non-sunny" side of the plane. If everyone is sleeping over watching moves, I do the 7/8th down shade. Enough to peek and check things out, but being considerate to others. BTW - on the Dreamliners, even though they automatically dim, I thought you still had your own controls on the window?

The cabin crew are able to "lock" the windows, in which case you can't override the setting. I think I've seen that done on UA, not sure I've experienced it anywhere else - but I also try to avoid the 787 unless I can fly PE (or J on that once a year occasion), which wouldn't happen on UA.

Eek! Fortunately JL didn't do that on my recent flights. They'd all go dark (though somehow tinted slightly green on one side of the plane and blue on the other), but then I could bring mine up from time to time.

What airline ? (One to avoid obviously)

Air Canada

Well, there will never be a solution that pleases a whole plane full of hundreds of people. My wife and I can't always even agree on how much to open the window blinds at home sometimes and that's just two of us!

And we also book A+B or J+K rows and swap seats one or more times in flight. The one of us not on the window who wants to see just hangs over the other. When my girlfriend is sleeping (with eyeshades) I can just open the window without a problem.

Keeping the cabin very dark is a real problem for some of us. I don't sleep on airplanes, nor do I watch the IFE. I read, listen to my music and do projects on my computer, just as I have forever. I get up often and walk around. This dark cabin/closed window shade situation is fairly new. People who want to sleep should bring eyeshades, the rest of us deserve to be able to move around the cabin as we wish. It's unhealthy to sit still for hours. I don't expect the cabin to be brightly lit, and I think a happy-medium can be reached so people can sleep, those watching IFE can be comfortable and the rest of us can move around safely.

There's the Boeing 787 solution, but that is going mainstream apparently. AFAIK neither the 787-10 nor the 777-8/-9 are getting the dimmable windows, which is a shame IMHO.

They keep the brightest light out, but still allow people to look out. Seems like a great compromise for both groups.

Many people can't sleep with eyeshades. Uncomfortable. "The rest of us" as you refer to are a tiny minority.

There is some ambient light that allows you to see well enough to move around the cabin even with the lights off and the shades closed.

It's kind of like smoking. If you can find a way to have your shades open without negatively affecting the people around you, go ahead. If not, don't.

How many people have you met who can't sleep with eyeshades? (And have they confirmed that they are able to sleep in a dark cabin without eyeshades, at the same jetlag/tiredness levels?)

Not having natural light IME makes jetlag much worse if it's currently daytime, and you want to stay awake for jetlag management purposes.

Actually at altitude, it gets extremely bright in the cabin if the blinds are opened. There's always light sneaking in, despite wearing eyeshades. But super bright IFEs are just as annoying in such a case...

That makes it much worse for me in most cases.