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Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Things to think about as we begins our admittedly difficult task

Hello friends, A-Bulba here. Let me begin in the same way as fellow writer and new colleague Masterotaku did by thanking Zorgarath for inviting me to write here, as well as introducing myself just a bit. I have to admit, I am a fresh face in the blogosphere. While I’ve never written a blog before I have written about politics, and my own thoughts, theories and opinions on politics, sporadically over the last few years in various public forums. It is these personal political philosophies, and how I feel mine and everyone else’s apply to the idea of an Anon Party, that I’d like to talk about here.

Right now the Anon Party exists only as an idea, but through the hard work of good intentioned people this idea may have the potential to grow into so much more. However, before that can happen important thoughts must be thought and, through consensus, important questions answered. Most importantly we must reach agreement on exactly what and for whom we stand for.

These two questions are bound to cause contention amongst Anonymous and Anonymous leaning individuals and it must be tackled early-on lest we succumb to petty bickering and in-fighting. When it comes to the who I feel we must first acknowledge that we can never actually claim to be speaking for Anonymous. Not only is this literally impossible it is also grossly out of tune with the very spirit of what Anonymous means. Anonymous is the great faceless multitude of the internet, it is a collection of thoughts without individual thinkers and words without authors. Above all, Anonymous is about ideas with no claim to ownership. We can never own Anonymous, and we should never presume to try. Likewise we can never assume to speak on the behalf of Anonymous, but only in favor and support of their goals and ideals.

Having established who we don’t necessarily speak for we should turn our attention to those we actually do. It seems we should aim to speak for anyone and everyone who cares about their personal freedoms both on the internet and in their civil lives. I would also go on to argue that Anonymous is the first great social movement of the internet age, and as such we speak for our generation. However, this is open to interpretation and I would love to hear from anyone with a contrary opinion.

Now, the sticky question of what the Anon Party should stand for, and here I fear I’ll be leaving the reader with more questions than answers. In reality I can only speak with conviction about the political ideals that I personally hold dear. These ideals will undoubtedly be expanded upon in later writing, but I will say now that I’m a socially liberal leftist, with some socialist leanings and a strong distrust for corporate power and a, equally strong dislike for its influence on society. However, I never attempt to force people to think the same as me. I will admit a love of discourse and debate, but no matter how heated and passionate I become I will never belittle and otherwise berate another for holding beliefs different to my own. So when it comes to the political leanings of the Anon Party the only thing I in anyway fell justified in saying is that we stand for the freedom provided by the internet and in its preservation. In addition, I would claim that we champion transparency in all levels of society and oppose corruption in the same.

I fear this piece may have gotten a bit away from me, and I’d like to remind the reader that everything written above represents myself only and should never be misconstrued as anything but. I would also like to leave this with the ardent hope that we continue to consider these questions so that one day we can have concrete answers. Anonymous may have began in chaotic disunity, but it is only through unity that we will gain strength.

6 comments:

aiguru said...

Thank you for the post. Rappresenting the faceless mass of the Internet ppl do you think it could be possible to create a Anon-No-War layer?
It seems to me it could be the right time to get all ppl together against the few that bring us into wars we don't want anymore. I support this idea.

Scotttheotaku said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Scotttheotaku said...

(redacted my previous comment only to turn on spellcheck LOL)

Whether or not we need to consider additional layers and factions at this stage is an interesting question. I'd be inclined to make two comments about that.

First, I think we need significant amounts of general discussion to clarify some basic principles before reaching for specific goals, even if it's a goal I wholeheartedly agree with.

Second, I feel the nature of the problem is a far deeper one. Wars are horrible things, and the three we are engaged in at the moment (Iraq, Afghanistan, and the "terrorist" war) are I think certainly abhorrent enough to object to vehemently. But the root of the problem goes much deeper than this. If we can achieve a return to proper limited and representative government, the idiocy that results in the death of our men and women and the vilification of America throughout the world will likely go away on its own.

nuri said...

i'm glad to read from various contributors that the goal of the anon party is not to represent anonymous - actually, i'm quite relieved to know that this understanding is inherent in the anon party idea from the very first moment.

therefore i can only say that i can and will support a movement that strives to strengthen civil rights, while at the same time remind everyone of civil responsibilities and, in the same vein, refocus government purpose and responsibility. now, i personally am not vested in the principle of government (leaning towards a social anarchist political ideology), but governments we have, so it must be on the front to check their purpose and find beneficial adjustments and relegations for it.

that being said, i'm looking forward to the first fully formed and articulated charter of principles for the anon party.

ganbarimasu!

A-Bulba said...

Nuri,

You've seen right at the heart of what I was trying to say. I don't think we can ever hope to have a fully fleshed party platform in a traditional sense. Instead I feel we should strive for a skeletal platform of basic ideals we can all agree with, namely the civil liberties and rights to free expression the internet generation holds dear.

We need to put serious thought and discussion into these ideals and chose a writer to put them down in an official charter for our party.

As I see it this should be our first priority as a party.

Cheers,
A-Bulba

Anonymous said...

I agree.

We don't speak for Anonymous but this provides another way for the Anonymous to speak for themselves.

It'll be a hard slog but societal evolution never occurs spontaneously, people drive it forward.