Anonymous Speech: On Speaking the Unspeakable

The internet has introduced a novel concept to society: anonymous speech. As any concept, its presence dissipates the longer it lingers.

Its dissipation finds itself through rhythm. The naturalization of a foreign concept domesticated. The final rhythm comes in the form of identity. It’s not something that exists with society, it becomes our society.

As any subject to natural law, anonymous speech exists in topological correspondence. Cause and effect, neither without the other.

Contrast this to the regular speech that has been part of society longer. In regular speech, words and intention are correlated with a speaker. In this rhythmic back and forth, speech, diction, words, logos is 1 to 1 tied to the individual person.

This individual stands with their words. Their trajectory into society and the trajectory of society comes into being contingent on how good the individual is to their words.

Speakers of nonsense and their deragotory terms have standing in society associated with madmen, outcasts, charlatans, and so forth.

Anonymous speech exists as outcast because there is no correlation to a person. And society is made of many persons.

There are instances of anonymous speech throughout history, but no anonymous conversations. If there were, they would have to be people with special means. And thus deducible to who they were. Not nearly as anonymous as today’s anonymous speech.

Speaking the unspeakable when anonymity allows it means speaking the unspeakable because there can exist words without a person.

I can say things, for example, that I do not mean. More importantly, you can imagine my words without the person who spoke them ever existing. Because there now exists a way to speak without existing, there exists word generators without a correlating person.

Next Chapter: Anonymous Meaning: On Interpreting Words Without People