Anonymous, angered by the death of Aaron Swartz, has decided to unleash a new operation against the United States government. It is supposed to be a crippling blow to the government and their corporate backers. 

Except they so far haven’t, and they won’t. Anonymous as an organization does not   understand how to change the situation.

CNN reported that Anonymous has launched Operation Last Resort. Comparing their latest endeavor to the Cold War, Anonymous has said that they now have “enough fissile material for multiple warheads,” referring to the incriminating information they have gathered. In keeping with the Cold War theme, Anonymous hopes that these “warheads” will be a measure of Last Resort.

Anonymous claims to have damning evidence. It claims that its secret documents will make the FBI “feel the helplessness and fear that comes with being forced into a game where the odds are stacked against them.” I think that Anonymous is overestimating the political dedication of the average citizen.

According to Anonymous, all that needs to be done is to release politically incriminating information, and then people will realize that they have been had, and will overthrow the government. Don’t we already have a zillion documents from Wiki Leaks and former Anonymous operations? 
Yes, we do, but the great masses of the people have not been inspired to rise up.

Anonymous can say that they want change, or freedom, or reform or whatever they want. But the fact of the matter is that these silly operations are not doing anything to change the objective reality. 

Rather than help people organize, or actually go out and try to change the objective and material conditions that create such inequality and oppression in the world, these hackers think that by capturing and releasing information they can successfully inspire others to bring about change.

Mann, a freshman computer science major from Raleigh, is an opinion writer.