Anonymous

Last Christmas the NYRB ran a review by one James Gleick of a book by one Gabrielle Coleman about a rather unpleasant phenomenon called anonymous. Gleick is a Harvard man who writes about information and information technology, sufficiently cool to have a very short web site address (reference 1). A web site which, as it happens, carries the same illustration as the review. Coleman is rather different, holding the Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy at McGill University. She trained as a cultural anthropologist and researches, writes, and teaches on computer hackers and digital activism. She can be found at reference 2.

Gleick leaves me with the impression that, like many anthropologists, social workers and the like before her, Coleman has rather gone native and in her efforts to understand the unpleasant phenomenon, she has almost become part of it. To think that she is a possibly tenured professor in the illustrious institution at which my mother took her degree. See reference 3.

He also leaves me with the impression that the members of anonymous - although this is perhaps rather a grand term for the people involved - are dead beats and drop outs. People with more or less IT skills but who, for one reason or another, choose not to participate in society proper - although I suppose it is quite likely that there are some people who like to do stuff like this when they are off-duty from their day job. I once read that a proportion of graffiti people are suits during the day who need to seek thrills during the night. Thrills which they chose not to get from substances, although I dare say there is some overlap here.

Anonymous is a broad church in which members get together in online chat rooms. The sample of chat included in the review does not inspire confidence in their judgement or morals. A quick peek at google suggests that the outfit also comes with a wikipedia article, facebook and twitter accounts, not to mention acres of hard core liberal, probably Islington resident analysis & commentary from organs such as the Guardian.

One activity is crude & unpleasant online attacks on people to whom they take a dislike for one reason or another. Perhaps because they are black or because they are outspoken women. Or perhaps just for a laugh. At least sometimes the joke is on them, as they sometimes attack people who turn out to be virtual people who were only manufactured by some other lot, just for a laugh.

Another activity is sometimes crude but sometimes effective attacks on organisations to which they take a dislike, some of which you or I might dislike too, like the Scientologists. This is sometimes claimed to be the good deed part of their scene. And indeed, one good result or side-effect is that people operating out on the web might start to take their security more seriously than they might otherwise - although there is still plenty to do on that front if the recent mishap at Sony is anything to go by.

Hopefully, most of the people who get into this sort of thing grow up and move on before they do too much damage, damage which they might come to be ashamed of in later life.

For me, two serious points emerge from all this.

First, immaturity, secrecy and anonymity are not good for truth and justice. Or even for efficiency. I dare say there are plenty of mistakes and blunders in our own security worlds which would not have happened out in the open. We do need to have secrets but there is a price to be paid for them. And picking up a thread from 'Absence of war' (see reference 4), we do need to have organisation and bureaucracy to manage the production of truth and justice. Anarchy and ad-lib is not enough.

Second, more or less illegal methods of protest can only be justified as a last resort. Which is not where these people are at. So what we have left are the costs of control which fall on all of us; their laughs are paid for by higher prices and higher taxes.

Reference 1: http://around.com/.

Reference 2: http://gabriellacoleman.org/.

Reference 3: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/mcgill.html.

Reference 4: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/the-absence-of-war.html.