. . . and the Problem With Anonymity

Listening to Anemic Volunteer's justifications for posting anonymous signs has helped me understand my real gripe with anonymity.

There is something fundamentally wrong with feeling entitled to show disrespect towards an individual while hiding behind anonymity or a pen name to protect oneself from a reciprocal, disrespectful, reply. Why are you entitled to indulge your frustration and impatience while seeking to exempt yourself from the frustration and impatience your statements provoke? It's unfair.

But it's also self-deceiving in my opinion.

When we cloak our identity we no longer speak as ourselves. Knowing we're buffered from accountability, we're free to indulge ourselves to an extent we're unlikely to reach otherwise. It is said that character is who you are when no one is looking. The social constraints of our public identities may well be our strongest incentives towards decency and mutual respect. Accountability in the public sphere ultimately rounds off our sharper edges and intimidates the lesser angels of our spirits. What better education can there be for an adult than the consciousness that one be well advised to consider carefully one's words in light of how others may hear them? Anonymity negates those cares, to our collective detriment.