If Anon and Wikileaks really wanted to hit back, the single best thing they could have done was to get the entire world laughing at the people responsible for what was being revealed rather than try to provoke moral outrage.
Governments and institutions are engineered to withstand challenges to their authority. And most are quite adept at redefining morals and ethics to suit their own ends.
But the one thing that authority cannot fight against is widespread ridicule and laughter at their expense. Emperors need "clothing" in order to get enough public consensus (or tolerance) to continue advancing their agendas. And this holds equally true whether they rule in the United States or North Korea.
So the biggest weapon that could be brought to bear against these men of little worth would be to expose them for what they are. And to get everybody laughing about it.
Most people lack the capacity to remain angry for extended periods of time. So while it may be true that anger burns hot, it also burns quickly. But a good joke has a half-life that can often be measured in years.
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There's a story told about King Louis of France. Although the details vary, the most common version tells of how the king had his wig fall off at a ball while bowing to a young lady he was trying to impress with his non-existent dance skills.
Nobody in the room seemed to notice, and the wig was shortly returned to the king's head without comment or fanfare.
A visiting Hungarian nobleman commented to the intense young Frenchman standing next to him that he was surprised nobody had laughed.
"That is because I would have arrested them if any had - and they know it," replied the young man, whose name was Antoine Raymond Jean Gualbert Gabriel de Sartine, comte d'Alby - and who happened to be (among other things) the head of the king's much feared secret police.
"Arrest a man merely for laughing?" exclaimed the Hungarian Count in disbelief. "What possible crime could there be in that?"
"Sedition, my dear Count," replied Sartines with a resigned smile. "For don't you see, the authority and might of kings depends
in its entirety on their taking pains to assure no one laughs at the wrong times."
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As long as they were either venerated, or simply hated and feared, the French nobility was unassailable.
It was only when their behavior attracted widespread ridicule and contempt that the revolution finally took place.
