Anonymous goes after Sony, makes it personal... very personal
It's very interesting to see folks rediscover what we always knew: there's a big difference between a group with a purpose and standards and a mob.<p>It used to be that geography contained a lot of mob-like behavior. You might be mad at the guy who lived in the nearby castle, but there were only so many villagers you could round up. And some of those liked the guy, some didn't want trouble, some didn't like your plan, etc.<p>Now the internet lets us find the most emotional people possible about a particular topic and put them all together in one "place". Then people can feed off each's other anger, saying and doing more and more preposterous things in order to impress the group. Information that might challenge the groupspeak is discarded. "Acts of valor" the group commit are spread far and wide, drawing in more members, thereby creating a feedback cycle which encourages more and more dramatic acts.<p>The thing is: <i>the issue doesn't matter</i>. The larger story isn't about Sony, or Anonymous, or any one particular issue. It's about how governments are going to be able to consistently function when the world is breaking up into thousands of little angry groups like this.<p>I have no idea how this is going to play out, or how many kids and families of corporation execs are going to suffer because of things they cannot control. But there will be a backlash. It's building, and I'm concerned that when it happens we are going to see governments step in and take control in ways that are as equally terrible. </doomsaying>