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Lillyt Sarkisyan
Professor Dylan Altman
College English 114B
17 March 2014
The Fear of Being Exposed

V for Vendetta, a graphic novel written by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, is about
the government system in England in 1997 after the country has just gotten out of war in
a world much different than ours. With the result of the feud, the government has taken a
toll on society with more severe regulations, and it has put people in a state of poverty,
lack of privacy, and an undesirable need to revolt. The government has manipulated the
people with the Voice of Fate, through news programs that in truth, only promote
propaganda to the populace. The overall theme in the graphic novel, V for Vendetta is
anarchism; or in more simple terms, chaos and disorder. This is mainly projected through
the protagonist V, whose goal is to destroy the authoritarian government. The strength
and courage that Vs legacy later leaves, projects onto the public. While it is true that
fear holds people back from giving a voice to an act or cause that needs awareness,
people should overcome the many obstacles of fear to achieve what is right and to
attain the freedom of choice.
Today, members of an online hacktivist group, known as Anonymous
mirror the actions of V, in a less brutal ritual. Anonymous is a group of hackers that
get together to crash or hack websites to get information about something in
particular. Anonymous usually target those who take advantage of or partake in
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fraud. Their motto is to do it for the lulz, which means that the way they approach
change has a certain tactic that will satisfy their humoristic needs but at the same
time, makes one consider the hypocrisy of certain views or ideas. Anonymous has
fought with child pornographers, hacked Sony repeatedly, and even tried to release
compromising pictures to black-mail Bay Area Rapid Transit spokesman Linton
Johnson into resigning (Norton). Within the cognition of all these movements is a
new model of how to fight back. Anonymous is the first to take matters into their
own hands with what Cenk Uygur describes as direct peaceful resistance to get
their point across. They have been labeled as pranksters, hackers, the phreakers,
and the trollers (Norton), but in the end, they get their point across and fight for
what our public is too blinded to see. Anonymous are not the good guys or the bad.
They are simply the ones who expose the problem, and immediately take action,
similar to V from the novel. Like V, Anonymous takes this power that they have, and
uses it to their advantage to initiate change. By removing this fear from the public,
we too can initiate change that is needed in the world.
We have now found ourselves in the shoes of those from the novel. There is
this community of hackers who single handily expose the truth behind our enemies
who are disguised as the good guys, yet we dont take any action. Why? The fear of
getting caught troubles us. But with this power of anonymity, we can assemble
change in ways that can brighten up a better future for both us and for our children.
With anonymity comes a great deal of advantages. Being anonymous means
concealing your identity, and having no identity means that you are
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undistinguished. The publics fear of getting exposed by authority is nearly
impossible.
Anonymous is not just an ordinary group that initiates change. They are a
growing culture, one with its own dialect, art, and values. Anonymous is a tightknit
community that can also be an advantage to one. Anonymous originated from a
website known as 4chan. There, people have the ability to write anything that comes
to mind, whether it is about their day at work, or feelings that have about someone
or something. Good or bad, their identities will remain concealed, but their views
will be out there for the world to see. This website is a wonderful opportunity to
meet people who have the same views and opinions about certain matters as you
do. When entering the website, one finds a list of topics of certain interests, this is
the option that brings people together. While posting images or texts, one remains
anonymous, this is something called forced anon, which made it impossible for users
to type in their name when they published a forum post. Instead, "Anonymous" would
invariably appear as the default author name for any post (Herwig). With just
anonymous appearing as the author, from the outside, it looks as if there was only one
person that posts the forums Anonymous responding, Anonymous sent a message,
etc. This is also another advantage because it takes away the hesitation of expressing a
viewpoint one is unfavorable of. There is no longer any fear involved of being judged or
losing ones pride.
The power of being disguised can remove any type of fear one has. Whether it be
the fear of getting caught, or the fear of losing ones self worth, remaining anonymous
disconnects with any, if not, all of those apprehensions. Being in this power movement
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most importantly initiates change. Change in which we all deserve. With the words, We
are anonymous, we do not forgive, we do not forget, Anonymous wants justice and
fights for it. We as a people, can demonstrate change if we forget about our fears and
concentrate on change.



















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Works Cited
"Anonymous Hacking Group Targeting Government Websites, FBI Warns." Fox News.
FOX News Network, 17 Nov. 2013. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.

Herwig, Jana. "Anonymous: Peering behind the Mask." Theguardian.com. Guardian
News and Media, 11 May 2011. Web. 12 Mar. 2014

Moore, Alan, David Lloyd, Steve Whitaker, Siobhan Dodds, Jeannie O'Connor, Steve
Craddock, Elitta Fell, and Tony Weare. V for Vendetta. New York: Vertigo/DC
Comics, 2005. Print.

Norton, Quinn. "Anonymous 101: Introduction to the Lulz." Wired.com. Conde Nast
Digital, 06 Nov. 0011. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.