March 11, 2008
Church of Scientology, shake in fear! You and your members face masses of angry people, a faceless crowd that will bring about your painful demise!
Anonymous, a group composed largely of online pranksters and armchair revolutionaries, first stepped into public view with the release of a video on YouTube, named "Message to Scientology," in which the organization declared "war on Scientology."
In subsequent videos, a worldwide date of protest was announced, Feb. 10, where Anonymous’ legion would rise, armed with information, false hope and boredom.
The first protest was such a roaring success (despite the mere estimated 7,000 that actually protested worldwide) that Anonymous decided to hold yet another protest, this one scheduled for March 15, the ides of March!
Not only that, but it’s the birthday of Scientology’s founder.
Coincidence? I think not. They must really be serious this time (or really need the public attention they’ve lost).
To be entirely honest, the protest against the Church of Scientology actually held several valid points, and the group originally was intelligent, organized and bordered on becoming a credible voice to pay caution to.
However, mob mentality, a lack of leader and an abstract set of directives combined with little morals has caused Anonymous to fall to disarray, becoming an "Internet Hate Machine," as they proudly proclaim.
Anonymous shut down a few Scientology Web sites, jammed many others and sent faxes consisting of black pages, in hope of cutting into the Church of Scientology’s budget by wasting costly ink.
Various hackings done "just for lulz" (lulz=lols=laughs) have also been reported, involving social networking sites like MySpace, and the creation of articles on Wikipedia, which has restricted the revision of many pages involving Anonymous.
The true maturity of Anonymous is present in their flaunting and self-infatuation, claiming to be omniscient yet completely ... well, anonymous. " ... if you are Anonymous, you are forever elusive, invisible, and unstoppable. You are invincible. You are God."
Yes, Anonymous follows you wherever you go - even when you are completely isolated from civilization. "Anonymous is everywhere." Even if every member of Anonymous is caught, Anonymous will rise - it is unstoppable. "Anonymous is a hydra, constantly moving, constantly changing. Remove one head, and 10 replace it."
If it were not so sad, and yet funny, Anonymous almost seems like Big Brother (they only undertake "Serious Business" - capitalized, mind you).
This group has fallen into hopeless chaos, with recruits joining the bandwagon to cause "real" destruction at will, to "really make a difference" with the mentality of an anarchy-loving, attention-grabbing 13-year-old.
Truthfully, it is sad to see a hopeful grass-roots organization go down the tubes like this, but the way things are now, it is nice to see Anonymous become a nonentity.
