The Revolutionary Potential of Anonymous

These folks caught my attention first several months ago when I became interested in a rather obscure news item about a teen suicide connected to some sort of MySpace drama. After reading the particulars of the story, and how a grown woman had deliberately baited an unstable young girl by pretending to be a boy who liked her in order to set her up for social ridicule, it really touched a nerve in me – as it evidently did a fair amount of folks – and I went looking for what people were saying about this on various forums and such. Just in time to watch all hell break loose. The original news stories did not name the woman, but provided enough details for a few Anonymous individuals to determine it. Her name, her husband’s name, her kid’s name, their address, home & cell phone numbers, their places of employment, client list of their business, property tax records, I can’t remember what all. And then fed it to an angry internet mob. The results were predictable. And very satisfying: Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword. It was a beautiful thing, anarchy in action. It’s not often you get to see karma work itself out so quickly and publicly.

I was struck then by the potential for this; Anonymous kept stirring the pot, keeping folks riled up and people started putting pressure to have the case re-opened. Then on the major media to cover it and now people all over the world know Lori Drew’s name and what she did and what she looks like. And even if she never did get charged with anything, she’s definitely paying her debt to society.

So, curious about these Anonymous folks, I started looking into them. And stumbled onto a whole subculture with its own language, jokes, philosophies and code. Some of it, well, a lot of it, was just juvenile. But some of it was funny as hell and I liked their style. It fascinated me sociologically and was a lot of fun to watch. Lotsa lulz. If you have no other real life, see

http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Main_Page for details.

I missed the beginning of World War Internet between Anonymous and Scientology because I was on the roadtrip, but when I got back and caught up with all that had gone on, I was really impressed at the success of the Feb. 10 protests. Anyone interested about the genesis of this movement should check out 'The Road to February 10th' :

http://www.dailymotion.com/SA-Anonymous/video/7341208

The really remarkable thing to me is how this small group of internet Merry Pranksters evolved – and very quickly – into a hive-mind, a collective consciousness. The Zeitgeist of the Internets.
Here are two excellent videos about the nature of Anonymous and how it is evolving:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuHF_br-DBs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0WCLKzDFpI


But think about this for a minute: the early old-school Anonymous are hard-core gamers. The Fox News piece about them last summer,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNO6G4ApJQY
(causing many lulz) was about as accurate as most of its careful and thoughtful reporting, but, from my research into their ouevre, I think they did get it fairly spot-on when they said that Anonymous plays the internet - and its denizens - like a computer game. Hey, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. And never forget that Anonymous’ primary motivation is always for the lulz.

There is a fair amount of evidence that Scientology was in danger of imploding even before Anonymous declared war. There have been many leaked documents in the last year and several high-profile defections, including David Miscavige’s niece and Mike Rinder, former chief spokesman for the church.
From Radar Magazine:

"It's looking like the perfect storm," says Dave Touretzky, a research professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University and a longtime critic of the Church. "I just can't believe what's happened over the last six months. It's all falling apart for Scientology now. We're looking at the end times for them."

http://radarmagazine.com/from-the-magazine/2008/03/scientology_anonymous_protests_tom_cruise_01.php


So, just suppose Anonymous decided that, for the lulz, they’d up the ante and move their game from cyberspace into meatspace, as they say. What better target than Scientology, a corrupt and just plain silly pseudo-religion that’s already a public joke, albeit currently wealthy and somewhat politically powerful? If so, this is brilliant strategy; if Anonymous can take even partial credit for the crash of the church of Scientology, it’s quite an epic win for them, as they say. I’d say it would boost their credibility – not to mention their notoriety – considerably.

But Anonymous is no longer just a small group of cyber-anarchists; a lot of people are waking up to the power of the internet to affect political and social change. The Christian Science Monitor, in an article about the recent protests, reports that:

“These tactics of anonymous activism have given a new voice to dissidents living under authoritarian regimes in Burma (Myanmar) and China. But similar methods are now challenging the legal systems of democratic governments as well, upsetting the ability of judges to balance freedom of speech against competing claims of privacy and public safety, argue some experts.”

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0317/p03s02-ussc.html

But it’s Anonymous’ use of satire and humor that’s making it work here; in another article I saw them referred to as “the Yippies of the internet” and that is exactly how I see it. Abbie Hoffman knew this: make the revolution a party and folks will show up. In this, Anonymous has their priorities in order: first, do it for the lulz. And there must always be delicious cake.