Like many others, I have my own thing and I look forward to getting back to it. Before I do, however, I wanted to point a few things out regarding Anonymous. Back in the old days, it was never like it is now. Just because you put the letters Op in front of someone you hated, or were pissed off at, didn’t mean shit. Anonymous used to be made up of thinkers. People who made up their own minds. People I could, and from time to time did, relate to. I have to ask. What the fuck happened?

I was sitting watching one of my absolute favorite movies of all time last night with my kids. V for Vendetta. It ranks up there with Braveheart and several others as movies I believe are actually worth watching. Not for the special effects, the adrenaline rush, or gore, but for the message that it conveys.

Let me just knock out a few points. Anonymous, as it stands today, has no relation to the concepts in that movie, Guy Fawkes mask or not. V stood to inspire the oppressed. He stood to bring back something his nation had lost. Something it needed. V was a man of honor, grace, philosophy, and skill. He was a man that had been imprisoned, tortured, stripped of his dignity, and pushed to his limits. A man of courage.

Anonymous today is none of those things. The members who hold those qualities have been silenced. Drowned out by louder voices who seek to take what was once something to be respected and turn it into something to be feared. Fear and respect are not the same thing after you grow up. It is an absolute travesty that the Guy Fawkes mask has been defiled by people like that. Those were the people that V sought to rid his world of.

Ideas are truly bulletproof. Especially when people are willing to give up everything in their lives to defend them. Read through the chat logs for LulzSec. These people never sat around talking about ideas. They sat around talking about messing with people, manipulating people, and themselves and the press they were getting. They got their exploits not from coding genius, but from putting out signs that said “Bad apples wanted”. The majority of the exploits they used came from outside their own group, given to them by those either carrying a grudge or just in possession of the knowledge of security holes in their company’s infrastructure. These were hits because they could, not because they served any greater cause. Really, the only one who ever seemed to have a sense of direction in the LulzSec group was Sabu. Yet, he was never on the front lines was he? He was always in the background saying “Do this” “Do that” “Whats my Bitcoin total” “Turn you boxes on this” and letting the others know how “lucky” they were they never had to see him work. And when the shit hit the fan…. just like that, he was gone.

So tell me Jake, do you feel lucky? You shouldn’t. You should feel like the rest of Anonymous. Used and thrown away. You are going to prison, and a Kevin Mitnick you are not. You have no great story to tell, no great skills to reveal, and no real future anymore. Imagine: If the courts issue an order that you cannot profit from your story for five years from the day anyone first heard of you, do you think anyone will even remember you? Ghost in the wires? Not for you. More like “Bitch in the jail cell”, and there are tons of those. Forgive me if I save my seven bucks, I’ve already read that story.

People, Anonymous or otherwise, should think for themselves. Chaos and anarchy are not causes. They are effects. There is no honor in releasing credit card numbers, passwords, or other information belonging to innocent people. There is no courage in what has been done by the Anonymous of late and LulzSec. Do you think Sabu will show up to speak for Topiary when he has his day in court? I wouldn’t hold my breath for that.

My point is a picture of a sword does not make you William Wallace. A picture of a Roman helmet will not make you Maximus. Nor does a picture of a Guy Fawkes mask make you V. Following Anonymous, AntiSec, or OpWhoDoWeFuckWithToday, will not make you a freedom fighter or revolutionary. It will likely make you more like Kenny from Half Baked.