“Anonymous,” a loosely-organized group of militant internet users, has proclaimed war on the Church of Scientology following its attempted suppression of a propaganda video starring Tom Cruise that was recently leaked on the internet. They have, so far, taken down a plethora of Scientology websites, organized pamphlet-distribution campaigns, harassed Scientology phone and fax lines, and have caught, however glancingly, the attention of some media outlets. And they have much more planned for the future. The ultimate goal? To raise awareness of the various crimes, unethical workings, and unsavory history of the Church of Scientology, particularly within the news media.

In the news stories currently reporting the battle, “Anonymous” has been called a “group of internet hackers.” This, however, is not entirely true. The truth is that there really is no group called “Anonymous.” The “group” has no formal organization, no leaders, no official website, no members. “Anonymous” is a vast conglomeration of regular internet-users whose commitments to “Project Chanology,” as the operation is called, are extremely varied. Some members are completely emerged in the cause; they are most likely the ones who are making the videos, coming up with objectives and methods, etc; other members may only be paying marginal attention to the entire fiasco, perhaps helping out here and there, but not really investing any serious time in the effort. They are all regular people who happen to know what is going on and believe enough in the cause to contribute however they can. They are simply citizens who want change. They are anonymous vigilantes. “They” are anyone who cares enough and who knows where to go and what to do. And, in many ways, they are best suited to take on the Church.

The reason? They are, well, anonymous. There are no names for the Church to attack, nobody to blame, nobody to press charges against, nobody to sue. The group is made up of everybody, yet it is simultaneously made up of nobody. Because they are everybody, the more effective operations are necessarily benign and easily justified: In order for their attacks to be successful, they need as many people operating as possible; but if the cause is alienating, obscure, or questionable , then it won’t attract many people and it’ll flounder. Therefore it is not necessarily a force to be feared as they cannot by nature do anything contrary to society’s best interests, each member being, first and foremost, a part of society himself.

Anonymity is the best-suited method of attacking the Church of Scientology because the Church’s traditional ways of attacking its attackers will not work–simply for the reason that the Church is unaware of who its attackers are. Traditional methods of the Church generally involve frivolous legal action which threatens to deplete the “Suppressive Person’s” bank account (as opposed to well-founded legal action which would subject them to the consequences of the laws they broke), although other methods have been used as well. In this case, there is simply nobody to attack.

The other reason that anonymity is essential is because “Operation Chanology” is largely a vigilante effort, and employs illegal methods of attack, such as DDoS attacks and copyright infringements. However, the methods they are using hide their identities well enough, and furthermore there are enough of them that even if legal action were brought against some of them, it wouldn’t matter in the long run.

As for why this large group of regular society members, as I have called them, has chosen Scientology as a target, I can only point again to their manifesto, which I have linked to in the first paragraph, and to a website that explores many dark corners of the Church of Scientology.

What right does Anonymous have to attack a religion? Who are they to say what is a religion and what is not? Whatever happened to Freedom of Religion? From what I understand, “Anonymous” is not interested in the personal beliefs of the adherents of Scientology; they are interested in the questionable actions of the Church as an institution. As I said before, they are inherently benign; they simply wish to stop what they view as a criminal organization–not to prevent or persecute people based on their beliefs.

However, they are also extremely limited in what they can accomplish. The most they can do is raise awareness. Because they are simply regular citizens who believe in a cause, I’m certain that they won’t destroy any building, kill any of the church higher-ups, or harm anyone in any real way. It won’t be “Anonymous” who destroys the Church of Scientology, it will be Society. This group, “Anonymous,” is simply trying to be a catalyst for more effective action. Whether this happens or not, however, as long as a single person sees the facts that the Church has attempted to cover up and is able to make an informed decision about Scientology for himself, “Anonymous” will have succeeded.