We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists Page #12

So much of our lives are now configured,

at least in part, on the internet, so we better

start thinking about, how we claim parts of the

internet as spaces, that we can also protest in.

This is the point

in history, at which

you decide, whether or not

protesting is possible online.

You can stand up and you can say,

freedom of speech extends to online.

We've got the right, not to be monitored

by our government, because of our opinions.

It's up to you.

You're in the position of Huck Finn.

Do you remember Huck Finn at the end of the book?

He's told he's got to take

that slave and give it back.

jail, as Jim is property.

'cause he's in the evangelical enviroment of Missouri

and so Huck smokes his corn cob

pipe all night, thinks about it

and the next morning he says,

well damn it, I'll go to hell then.

In other words, he discovered that

in order to be an expert at ethics,

you had to transcend the legal and sanctioned

religious, appropriate truths of the day,

in order to access the meta-truth,

of both legality and righteousness.

Well, hackers see themselves as Huck,

putting down their corn cob pipe and say:

Alright I'll go to jail,

alright I'll go to hell,

but I'm gonna do the right thing.

I suppose the question

you really wanna ask is,

would I do it again?

And honestly, after thinking about it,

I felt that, I did what was right.

I had a belief, I still do,

that what I did was the right thing and

hopefully someone got some good out of it.

I'd love to think, that maybe I

stopped someone from joining a cult.

Probably wouldn't tell

on myself next time but,

I don't think I would have

changed a single thing, other than

the whole talking to the FBI thing.

It's just that little detail,

that changed everything.

I'm angry,

occasionally I have

small break-down moments,

of terror,

but I haven't stopped

believing what I believed,

I haven't stopped wanting to

fight, I haven't stopped caring.

I don't think this whole issue

is a technical hacking thing.

This is more about human

philosophy and psychology.

Let's motivate and ask, why is there so

much unrest or disenfranchisement or anger,

that would lead people to want to take

matters in their own hands and join this.

Whether you think it's bad or not,

is irrelevant, it's not going away.

I have stood upon the

mountain top known as Anonymous

and looked down on a world

inflamed with revolution.

What can you say, your spine tingles

when you are at the course of history

when you're surfing the waves

of history, your spine tingles.

There's a lot of people in Anonymous who feel

very deeply and very sincerely about

their contribution towards democracy around the world.

And I think that's one of the main things that

I'm most proud of about Anonymous.

There are things that I'm not proud of about Anonymous

but that we stand against censorship

and we stand against oppressive governments,

even our own,

is a very noble thing.

If you had power in real life

and you had money in real life,

it doesn't f***ing

matter on the internet.

What matters on the internet

is your actual ideas,

how smart you are,

the quality of you

and when certain organizations want to

extend their real life power onto the internet,

it's not gonna f***ing

take, because of Anonymous.

History teaches us that change,

simply doesn't come with flowers.

It dosn't work.

If the say I'm a criminal, then...

...well...

...then I will be one.

Anonymous is an evolving thing.

It's like a phoenix.

It might occasionally catch fire and burn to the ground

but it'll be reborn from ashes.

It'll be reborn stronger.

I don't care if you are

a democrat or a republican,

or an independant, or if you like Ron Paul,

or if you worship pidgeons or scientology,

or if you're catholic,

or atheist, or methodist..

I don't care about that.

Your opinion matters.

I don't care if I disagree with it.

I don't care if I hate your guts.

Your opinion matters.

We are Legion

The Story of the Hacktivists

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