I've been watching from the sidelines for the past several weeks. I've been looking at a group of people who have little in common, rally towards a common cause. I have seen them self-select and self-manage. I have seen them develop – and it has been amazing. I wish I had the courage to stand up as they do.

I don't know much about the fight, and I've read volumes of propaganda from both sides. I don't know a lot of objective facts. I do know that there are people trying like hell to bring them to light, and there are people trying like hell to keep them in the dark. They play a shell game – substituting seemingly positive behaviors in place of answers to criticism. I don't know if this is wrong or not – I can't see enough information to evaluate the behavior. Publicly executing 10 people to establish a cure for cancer isn't a decision. Just as slowly killing thousands in the pursuit of world domination isn't a religion – not anymore anyway. The continuum lies somewhere between the lies.

True democracy is freedom. Anonymous grants, and in fact requires, freedom for all its members. I have seen some make good decisions. I have seen some make questionable ones. Typical statistics seem to propegate in all populations. Anonymous stands alone as a self governing democracy and in one key respect, one that eludes our society in the United States. Anonymous is a coalition of the willing. There is no hierarchy, and there are no subjects – each and all are master and servant.

They are willing to stand up and speak out on their beliefs. They are willing to put their own money – the money of individual people, not a corporate collective, to the achievement of their ends. They have bought servers, rented trucks and even planes – they have made signs, and costumes and cake. What they do is a labor of love, or at least infatuation. As a group they are realizing that they wield power – not personalized power, but socialized power.  

They are acting with transparency - there is no dirty laundry, there is no clean laundry, there is just laundry and its visible to all. An organization who's actions are visible to all needn't show individual identities - it is irrelevant.

Anonymous is thickening in ranks from teacher to technocrat, from baker to banker. This war against their current adversary will not be the last, rather it will be the cutting of teeth for an organization slowly defining its values and learning how to peacefully defend them. It transcends the hacker culture that gave birth to it, but it includes it as part of it's heritage. It is becoming Anonymous 2.0.

Edit: For those of you not keeping score at home, check out 4chan, Scientology v. the Internet, and anonymous.
To get involved check out:
http://www.whyweprotest.org/ or search youtube for project chanology.
To learn more about scientology and it's many charitable fronts check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology.