View From the Phlipside - Anonymous

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside.

There's revolution in the air.  You can't have heard or read any news source over the last month and not come into contact with it.  Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain and more.  I've spoken before about the role that the electronic communication media, especially social media, have played in all this so far.

But there may be the beginnings of a revolution in the digital world as well.  You may have caught a scent of it or it might have quite easily slipped by you.  To be honest the folks involved don't have a huge problem if you never notice them at all.

They are Anonymous.  They are Legion.  They never forgive.  They never forget.  Expect them.

That sounds like dialogue from a rather bad movie.  In fact it is a sort of unofficial motto of a group of computer experts who just might be the cutting edge of an online revolution.  Unofficial because to be honest everything about the Anonymous Collective (they don't even have a designated name other than the single word anonymous or some variant phrase) is unofficial.  One characterization of them said they are a group the way a flock of birds are a group.  They're flying in the same direction but the members change over time.  In simplest form they want the internet to remain free.  Free from government censorship,  free from political control.  That's why they've launched attacks on Australian governmental web sites when that government tried to control the content available.  You've most probably heard them defending WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and attacking Bank of America and some of it's associates for their attempts to put WikiLeaks out of business.  They've also supported the protesters in Africa and the Middle East.  There was also a recent conflict with the folks from the Westboro Baptist Church.  Anonymous denied attacking the website but did react angrily to foolish comments made by the church.

So where does that leave us in the digital revolution world?  History likes to make heroes out revolutionaries after the fact.  The reality is that revolutionaries are ALWAYS uncomfortable dinner guests as it were.  By it's very nature Anonymous can strike at any place, at any time.  The selection of targets may not seem consistent because of the fluid nature of the collective.  At the same time it never hurts to have people willing and able to fight for freedom on our behalf.

Anonymous just might be a new hero for a new age. 

Call that the View From the Phlipside

"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2011