Have you ever sat on the shore of a river an d watched water flow by in its relentless, ever-changing form ? It is a beautiful display of life, cleanliness and beauty. In that beauty though lies great chaos; currents, eddies, white water, waves, and a constantly changing flow. A swamp, however, full of stagnant water, breeds disease, mosquitoes, and the stench of death. Governing human beings is a stream. As a society develops, so too does its government. A stagnant government leads to hate, fear and oppression. Saudi Arabia dwells in the swamps of political stagnation and oppression. The United States is (mo stly) a river, constantly changing, flowing along a path cut by its people’s own ingenuity, courage and determination.
Anonymous is a multinational group that, for the most part, attacks those that deserve it. While governments may not agree, it is through Anonymous that many of the fights of our time will be waged. Anonymous is like a bit torrent; distributed, elusive, nearly impossible to track. They are not motivated by a centralized goal. Their goals, their targets, their wars, are the making of a group of thousands of individuals. They have no authority figure, no dictator, and no President. They have only ideas. They are the truest form of democracy. In a nation wrought with corrupt officials, businesses that care little for individuals, and nearly all of the money and power isolated within the ranks of a small group of elite individuals, Anonymous brings balance.
A government unchallenged is an ineffective government. Without challenges to power, those with power can wield it as they see fit. They can wage wars with countries that tried to assassinate their “daddy” for any reason that they please (George W. Bush). They can bail out the ric h of Wall Street, give them tax breaks, and make the poor and middle class take the burden of the bill (Obama). Anonymous, however, is not a group made up of the wealthy. The individuals in its ranks are not the social elite, they are just people. They are people surviving in a world that more often seems to turn on those that make its day to day operation possible. They are people that make the decision to take action not because they are ordered to do so, but because they must. They must take action to do what government cannot. They are incorruptible, they are untraceable, and they are unrelenting.
The nations of the future will not be bound by lands, but by ideas. Anonymous shows us that people who believe in something can make a difference. Whether we believe as they do or not, they are doing what they feel is necessary in a world where governments have become ineffectual pawns to those with money and resources.
NATO’s crackdown on Anonymous is a stance that King George III would be proud of. Although the founders of the United States were not innocent of corruption, and were not the saints that the textbooks would make them out to be, I believe that they would be proud that a group like Anonymous exists.
It is in the struggle, and the conflict, that freedom is truly realized.
Keep Fighting
Follow Your Heart
Keep the River Flowing
The writer of this post is not a member of Anonymous, but strongly believes that they are necessary. (No he isn’t a coward, he just doesn’t necessarily share their views, and doesn’t know how to launch a DDoS attack).