Not So Anonymous

So let me get this straight. My good friend goes out to join Anonymous in protesting Scientology, taking all the necessary precautions, including wearing a mask, referring to himself only as “Anon,” and not giving his email address to other protesters, only to go home and create a blog post that gets featured on the front page of Current? Not so Anonymous after all.

He’s a still a good guy, and I hope he doesn’t get abducted or whatever Anonymous believes Scientologists do to their foes. Of course, he probably won’t, because there’s really no way that Scientology is everything Anonymous claims it to be (and this is coming from a guy who snuck into the Celebrity Center).

I first learned about the group Anonymous about a month ago, just before they declared war on Scientology. I thought the idea was funny; I imagined a bunch of dudes messing with people’s MySpace accounts while chugging Mountain Dew as The Matrix played softly in the background. As I learned more about them, a few things became apparent:
-They take themselves WAY too seriously.
-They’re a little misguided.
-My initial assessment was spot-on.
I have listened to Anonymous’ arguments against Scientology. They put a lot of work into making it sound like they’re not a mob of religiously intolerant libertarians, and I’m almost convinced. Almost. No matter what I feel about this group and their strangely impersonal crusade against an equally mysterious religion, I find this whole situation interesting. I mean, here’s a bunch of 18-24 year old guys who look like they’d be more comfortable with a controller in their hands than a protest sign who have managed to organize - in minimal time - a protest that won them national attention. Anybody else find this a little odd?

I have so many questions, frustrations, and thoughts for these iconoclasts who see the destruction of Scientology as their calling (and not, say, the dismantling of the war machine), not to mention similar queries as to what this means for the future of protest. In some ways, these guys are buying into everything that makes non-violent action irrelevant today (see this). Their choice to wear masks is somewhat disturbing…they claim it is to avoid retaliation by the all-powerful Church, but it strikes me as more of an asshole shield. I seem to recall hearing of a KKK rally that was scrapped after the town denied the group the right to wear masks. There’s power in numbers, but there’s greater power in anonymity, apparently. It would be great if the members of Anonymous would openly stand by their convictions when it came to the Church. This is real life, after all, not a message board.

It’ll be fun to see where this thing goes… It’s curious that this is all happening now that Ron Paul is out of the race…hmmmm….