Anonymous Approach to Homelessness, Justified?

We are Anonymous.

We are legion.

We will not forgive governments forcing people to become homelessness.

We will not forget that we can be next.

To the corrupt government holding our future from us.

You will expect us soon enough!

     -“Anonymous – The Homelessness Update 2014” by “OfficialAnonymousTV1”

            Anonymous is “a loosely international network of activist and hacktivist entities,” started in 2003. And, “the group became known for a series of well-publicized publicity stunts and distributed denial-of service (DDoS) attacks on government, religious, and corporate websites.”

Thanks Wiki.

Anonymous is good in what they do: hacking, educating the public of the injustice, and giving a big headache to the FBI. In their YouTube channel, the Anonymous has released the Homelessness 2014 update. Here, they also succeeded in implementing fear to their enemies, or the “corrupted government.”

But, here is the thing. As writing this article, I am, to be honest, a little afraid to mention anything that might provoke the Anonymous, or FBI in a space that is so “public.” How is this fear I am feeling different from the one I feel due to the government censorship? My lack of knowledge in the interests of Anonymous might be the cause. Still, this fear of mine has its reasons.

As a college student who is interning at an anti-homelessness organization in Oakland called WEAP, Women’s Economic Agenda Project, I cannot help but to compare the approaches taken by my organization to the one of Anonymous. The “Anonymous approach” to homelessness in the U.S. is much more sensational and informative that the work the WEAP has done. However, it seems that WEAP has provided a more intimate cure to the homelessness, by launching anti-eviction campaigns, and discussing homelessness in a non-virtual space or by face-to-face. Fascinatingly, WEAP and Anonymous have been around for about the same years. But, they have vastly different history when in working with homelessness. Is there a better approach? Does the better approach necessarily cancel out the unique benefits that another provides?

Anyways, Anonymous is fabulous in their hacking skills. I wish I had them.

            Lucky you. And, thanks to them for their videos. They do help in spreading the facts of poverty and inequality to the larger audience. And, they do help in raising questions that should be answered by all activists who are involved in reducing inequality, poverty, and injustice. What does justice mean to you? What is equality, in a world that we live in now?  I am assuming I did have my ideas unrefined as I began my work. However, it would’ve have been more helpful to have these terms defined explicitly as my first step. I then could’ve tracked my progress in my work and possible modifications to my ideas of poverty, inequality, and justice.

           My most agreeable form of understanding justice comes from John Rawls, an American philosopher of politics. By Rawlsian terms, Justice as fairness is achieved by minimizing inequality, and having the better-off contribute for the worst-off. When studying inequality and poverty, I find justice, as a concept that must go noticed.

Does justice matter? I think so.