M&D p. 9: the Crime they styl'd Anonymity

Monte Davis montedavis49 at gmail.com
Wed Jan 14 08:29:23 CST 2015


Cherrycoke's account of his youthful offenses and punishment surely has
some echoes of William Penn's Quaker pamphleteering -- see 'Persecutions
and Imprisonments' in

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Penn

Although Penn himself was bold (and well-connected) enough to use his name,
many others in the British religious controversies of the time were not,
and "Anonymity" was often among the charges brought against them.

The name "Anonymous" as a hacktivist quasi-organization didn't surface
until the Scientology attack in 2008, but P may also have had in mind the
traditions of Guy Fawkes Day pranks, Ned Ludd, masked comix avengers up
through Alan Moore's 1980s 'V for Vendetta,' et al. Even, perhaps, a
contemporary author who stays as invisible, if not anonymous, as he can.

-Spartacus
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