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A Word About Anonymity

I've taken a lot of heat in my years online for being a private person, and wishing not to attach information about myself to my opinions. Most commonly, I hear the phrases, "why do you have to be anonymous, if you have nothing to hide?" and "are you such a coward, that you're afraid to own up to what you write?" I'd like to take a minute to address these two criticisms of anonymity.

First of all, let me establish the presupposition that humanity, in general, is given to stereotyping and grouping people together. While I don't feel this is inherently a bad thing, and that it can sometimes have its useful purposes, there are other times when this human nature can get in the way of intelligent discourse. To that end, I offer this defense to the first charge:

Sometimes I do have something to hide—for your own good.

If I don't already have your trust and respect for my opinion when I tell you what I think, staying anonymous is one way to make sure you won't dismiss my thoughts irrationally—that is, based on past knowledge of me, or of a preconceived notion of me based on a label or stereotype. My anonymity encourages you to take my opinion on its own basis, untarnished by my past relationship with you, free of influence from presuppositions and pretension. That's the way I like it.

To call me a coward before reading what I have to say proves the necessity of my anonymity.

The truth is, I'm a nobody. I could give you my name, address, credit card numbers, and complete marketing profile, and odds are you would still have no idea who I am. Whether I give you a name to associate me with or not, you have no basis on which to judge my thoughts, except my very presentation of them. The fact that some would call me a "coward" based only on the fact of my anonymity demonstrates exactly the preconceived notions from which I seek to protect myself. If you would demonize me or choose not to read my opinions based on this prejudice, so be it: let the slur be on your character, not mine. If I truly am a coward, let it be revealed through my writings, rather than your closed-mindedness.

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