Occupy Wall Street — Unsavory Support

A blurb on Bloomberg caught my eye this morning.  It says:

“Anonymous, a group of self-styled hacker-activists behind attacks on corporate and government websites, vowed to support the Occupy Wall Street protests by erasing the New York Stock Exchange ‘from the Internet’ on Oct. 10.  The group posted a video message on YouTube declaring war on the world’s largest stock exchange in retaliation for the mass arrests of Wall Street protesters, and posted a link to the video on one of several Anonymous Twitter feeds.”

I am certainly not a blind supporter of Wall Street and I am incensed by the ethical wasteland it represents.  But are we really willing to crash the entire economy of the world and turn over our rights to regulate our own lives and governments to an anarchy of nameless computer geeks whose own morale compass is jammed?

I feel by letting so-called “Anonymous” speak and act on our behalf we have abrogated our own responsibility for the state of our society.  It’s going to take some work to correct the institutions we have permitted to run rampantly out of control for so long, but I personally believe in speaking up as oneself and insisting on the public process to correct these wrongs, not hiding behind an anonymous computer screen or mask.

Forty-five years ago, the protest movement against the Viet Nam War had a face.  Now that face is hidden.  Are these anonymous few really seeking to bring about social change? Are they just a bunch of kids, impressed by their own apparent power?  Are they being manipulated by those whose real intention is to shut down what remains of our personal freedom in retribution against these wildly erratic activities? Where is the courage of the “activists” who seek to reform our society today?  And what are we headed for if we allow this to continue unchecked?

I feel the rest of us, who let this just go by, are as culpable as “Anonymous” if a backlash against their license shuts down our own right to determine our future.