Power and Responsibility

On January 21, 2008, a hacker group calling itself "Anonymous" declared war on the Church of Scientology in response to the church's demand that a video containing copyrighted material be removed from YouTube.  As reported on C|net's News.com, "local chapter sites for the Church of Scientology have been defaced, and in some cases denial of service attacks have also prevented access to the same sites. Real-world attacks have included fax-spamming those same offices."  The group's vigilante attitude proclaims that Anonymous makes the decisions, and anyone who stands in the way will be thrown aside; civil and legal rights are to be ignored when inconvenient.  The showdown has been reported on NBC, SlashDot, Wired, Digg, and thousands of blogs.  This is big news.

Anonymous's actions are disturbing, reminiscent of an anarchistic society governed not by law but by power. The group clearly believes that capability grants authority, and that its mere ability to attack Scientology gives it the inherent right to do so without regard to established authority.  Western society generally disagrees with that notion, so I'm surprised to see the amount of support the group has gained on the internet.  We're a law-abiding group of people, one generally inclined to leave enforcement up to the government.  Then again, it was only a few years ago that Spiderman's Peter Parker reminded millions worldwide that "With great power comes great responsibility."  Isn't that the same idea dressed in different words?  If our heroes get to ignore the law, why doesn't Anonymous?  Why is it right for Spiderman to use his power outside the law, but not for Anonymous to do so?  These aren't simple questions, and they have no easy answers.