Private Identity in Public Space

Why anonymity?

Privacy, a recent Calgary Herald article argued, has never been more vigorously protected by legislation than it is today and yet it is clear that the distinction between private and public worlds is rapidly eroding.

In the past it was fairly clear what was public and what was private. The latter was either never shared with others, or only with close friends. Public words were spoken to influence groups of people; they were recorded, and they were judged.

No one expects to be judged on a private thought. Even so the virtual world - with its artificial catalysts of intimacy - has exploded with private thoughts turned public. Private opinion has never been more public. Cyberspace cultivates an artificial intimacy that encourages a radical disclosure - but this is absolutely disingenuous. Virtual information is never lost.

Why protect private identities in a public space, especially a space dedicated to topics of public conversation? First, Google tells all. Those writing in this space are not just academics testing out intellectual theories, they are professionals with careers ranging from pastoring, to teaching, marketing to public policy. We want a space to ask tough questions - not just publicly acceptable ones - a space in which to contest important ideas, not just the safe ones, a place to be genuine, and thus not always public. The shield here is not from responsibility - how could that be if all the writers involved know and trust one another? - but from the toxic conflation of private and public conversation. What we write here are not op-eds for daily periodicals, and so they should not be read as such. Here there is space for reflection, debate and honesty that a 24 hr news cycle, and instant Internet opinion could never find - that people who had reputations to defend, public relations to keep up, and careers to husband might not otherwise have.

If we can't put our reflections into words we can't really understand our thinking. Words do matter. They matter so much, that we need to understand "the difference between private words and public words not to excuse offensive ideas, but to preserve the capacity to understand what offensiveness means, not to mention beauty, wisdom and truth".