Abstract

Imagine if computer hackers, the daredevils of the networked world, suddenly became principled political activists; if they had a mission besides breaking and entering; if they had more to prove than that they are smarter than whoever designed your computer system, if their targets were selected as part of well organized, thoroughly researched, international human rights campaigns. (Naomi Klein, 1998)Whether we know these people personally or not, Anonymous has proven we don't give a fuck about borders. We don't care for your petty racial prejudices, your sexism, your religious ideology, any of it. We are all one. ONE. Singular. Divided by no mother fucker. One solid force standing as a beacon of light, a pillar of hope, in this bleak dark world. These people are our brothers. Our sisters. Our friends. One love. We stand, because the rest can't walk yet. We speak, because they have not found their voices. Our voice resonates around the globe. One voice screaming PEACE! COMPASSION! JUSTICE! And if you fuck with us, with ANY of us, for all downtrodden people are our brethren: Expect us! Expect us like a mother fucking storm. Expect us like a force of nature. Bad Rum Pete (post in Million Mask March Facebook page 2013)And He (Jesus) asked him (the man), What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many. (Gospel of Mark 5:9)INTRODUCTIONThere were about fifty of us gathered in front of the Ontario Legislative building in Queens Park Toronto. Most of us were wearing masks. I was quite disappointed in the low turnout but was giving a speech in which I said just the opposite. I said that the small numbers of us there did not matter because we were merely one part of something much bigger, something global. This was true. The Million Mask March had simultaneous events in approximately four hundred and fifty cities around the world. Most of them, however, were small like this Toronto one. But while the London Ontario event was small, the one in London England was not. Thousands of people there blocked Westminster bridge and shot off fireworks in front of Buckingham Palace. The Washington DC event also had many thousand people present. The events, large or small, all had one thing in common besides the ubiquitous Guy Fawkes masks that have come to symbolize Anonymous; they were largely ignored by the mainstream media.The Million Mask March RL (real life) event in Manila was relatively small as well. But their online component gathered much more media attention (the Million Mask March was accompanied by a variety of online operations and attacks around the world) because Anonomous Philippines took down thirty of their government's websites.Before my speech in Toronto, a middle aged Chinese woman led us in a few minutes of silent prayer and meditation to find our inner peace and project these good vibrations out to the troubled globe ... or something like that. A young masked man warned us of the dangers of chem trails and fluoride in the water. After my speech expressing a sense of optimism and solidarity that I was having trouble feeling, a young woman, not wearing the usual Anon mask but instead wearing some kind of cat costume with flowers and horns on head, explained to us personal journey to empowerment, becoming her own superhero, as symbolized by the costume she was wearing.Later that same day I spoke at a different sort of event organized by the Public Interest Research Group at my university. I was among a panel speaking about political manifestos and I was supposed to speak to the Anonymous one. I stated that Anonymous does not have a manifesto; instead it has memes and masks. One could equally say with truth, that it has hundreds of manifestos about every issue conceivable and conflicting positions on many of them.Many people present at the earlier event at Queens Park had maintained their online connections through their phones; and thus we quickly learned the breaking mainstream news that our clown Mayor of Toronto had admitted to smoking crack cocaine and drunk driving. …

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