I have had reason to loathe Anonymous and reason to praise them. I've cheered their attacks on pedophile groups and the Westboro Baptist Church, but I've harshly criticized their release of average citizens' personal information who did nothing wrong just to make a point. Respect or ridicule, the one aspect of this hacktivist group ..... THE hacktivist group ... would be their simple ignorance of implementing the figure of Guy Fawkes and his mask made famous by the movie V for Vendetta.
Anonymous prides itself for standing up for the basic freedoms of the human race, regardless of age, gender, race, creed, nationality, or political preference. They wage war full force against governments and organizations that threaten that freedom and attempt to oppress the natural born right of every human being to simply live.
Knowing all of this about the group that has fought the corruption of church and state, one must question their choice of Guy Fawkes, the notorious (though not as famous as St. Patrick) terrorist of the Vatican.
Didn't know that part?
See, GUIDO Fawkes was a proud member of the English Catholics responsible for the November 5, 1605, assassination attempt on King James 1. It was an attempt to end Protestant authority and aide the Vatican in controlling the throne of England. He was captured before he could complete his mission (which was simply to sit beside a stockpile of explosives and light the fuse when the time came), then tortured and killed after he divulged the Vatican terrorist group's plans.
Guy Fawkes was an unapologetic terrorist for the Roman Catholic Church, proud of his role in helping the Vatican continue to murder innocent people who simply didn't want to worship God in their way. And this is who Anonymous now uses as their symbol of
freedom....
In reality, Guy Fawkes would be on the Vatican committee to oversee the removal of anything unflattering to Rome and anything else deemed as a hazard to the peaceful demeanor of society (like all those OWS rallies). How many Anonymous members and supporters would truly become his victims if the man was alive today?
Truth be told, Guy Fawkes represents the enemy of everything Anonymous holds dear and fights to protect.
Prior to the V for Vendetta movie, this was the widely recognized symbol for Anonymous:
Much cooler and gets its point across with much more class and direction.
I understand every movement needs a symbol, and not just a cool artistic design. It needs a living specimen of the greatness the organization wishes to portray.
I believe that if I had a say in who that symbol would be for Anonymous, I would choose Giordano Bruno. I'm a little surprised, actually, that he or any of the numerous other champions for freedom of knowledge weren't chosen over a symbol for thought control.
Giordano Bruno. I hadn't heard of him until I was watching my dirty little secret, Ancient Aliens. Bruno had the unmitigated gall to dare challenge the Vatican's stance on the Earth being the center of the universe.
Through his own endeavors to discover the mysteries of the universe outside of the sanctioned education of the Dominican priesthood (of which he was a member for 11 years), he came to find God was more in nature than in the words of man. He broadened his experiences by seeking truth in science, which lead to his insane notions that our planet not only
isn't the center of our universe but only one of perhaps millions of other planets in creation.
"Heresy!" they screamed and threw him in prison, where he remained faithful to real Truth and determined to share the real wisdom of our existence with anyone he could reach. Even upon his death as yet another of Rome's victims burned at the stake, he refused to betray what he knew in his heart and soul was truth. He was murdered for seeking knowledge by the tyrannical powers Guy Fawkes emulated.
Giordano Bruno was a human being only wishing the freedom to be his own person and seeking the truth in science and creation to be shared with those wishing to follow that path, while the Vatican was the governing force determined to silence Truth and oppress freedom.
Anonymous can keep Fawkes and snuggle soundly with his cowardly mask. I have found my hero, the very real symbolism of escape from the shackles of oppressive ignorance and forefather of what many pagans and spiritualists who embrace science follow today.
"He is one martyr whose name should lead all the rest. He was not a mere religious sectarian who was caught up in the psychology of some mob hysteria. He was a sensitive, imaginative poet, fired with the enthusiasm of a larger vision of a larger universe ... and he fell into the error of heretical belief. For this poets vision he was kept in a dark dungeon for eight years and then taken out to a blazing market place and roasted to death by fire." John Kessler
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/john_kessler/giordano_bruno.html