Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Recently, I've been following the blog of a dear friend of mine. I admire his bravery in standing up against people and ideas that challenge his beliefs and life experience. Because of the sensitive subjects discussed, I imagine that many people frequent his blog, and there are the usuals that reply to his posts. However, there has been a person/persons that have felt it necessary to reply anonymously, as blogger.com obviously allows. It is the notion of anonymous posting that I would like to discuss.

For many reasons, someone may feel the urge to post anonymously. For one, Anonymous may be a close relative/friend/acquaintance to the blogger. He or she would read the blogger's post and feel as if he or she must reply negatively (considering the vast majority of anonymous posts connote an unfriendly tone). Naturally, opposing a relative/friend/acquaintance's ideas would be destructive to the relationship! Right? The last thing Anonymous wants is to be found out for who he or she really is.

I think this concept transfers over to chat rooms and/or pornography in a way. Anonymous feels the need to post/chat/watch in order to gratify themselves, but entirely escaping all accountability in the process. Indeed, as my friend mentioned, it is cowardly. For what would happen if Anonymous were caught posting/chatting/watching?

Without a doubt, anonymous posting is cowardice and a desperate plea to gratify one's pride and escaping any accountability and repercussion which may (or may not) follow.