Anonymous Society, Part Two

Those of you who have read the comments on my post titled “Anonymous Society”, are aware that I penned a letter to the Yated Ne’eman’s Readers Write section on the issue. A copy of that letter is pasted into the comments to that post.

In this week’s Yated there were three direct responses to my letter, and I’d like reply to two of them.

Chaim Hendeles, though strongly agreeing with the content of my letter, pointed out that Rav Yehudia Nesiah, one of the great Tanaim, felt the need to suppress his opinion because he was afraid of the people’s reaction. Apparently, the problem with our society being to judgmental is not a new phenomenon.

Mr. Hendeles, the distinction between what occurred then and what is occurring now is quite simple. In those days one may have felt the need to hide his opinion on important, potentially controversial, subjects. And even that was a rarity. Nowadays, people are consistently afraid of expressing anything, regardless of how trivial and non-controversial the topic.

In this past week’s Readers Write there were a total of twenty seven letters on topics ranging from high school acceptance letters, soundproofing, midwinter vacation, anonymous letters, Bitachon, comparing pain, helping those on the brink, appreciating every moment, Chesed, unfair ticketing, Neturai Karta, hazardous containers, therapy, saying thank you, and more. And yet, only seven of them chose to sign their names. Considering how uncontroversial most of these topics are, it is quite conspicuous that only twenty five percent of these letter-writers had enough courage to reveal their identity.

This is no isolated incident of Rav Yehudah Nesia. It is a widespread and accepted practice, mandated by our society’s tendency to judge & criticize everyone and anyone based on what they say or write.

Raphael Levi then points out the hypocrisy in my writing a letter decrying anonymity and yet signing off using my initials instead of my full name.

Mr. Levi, there exists no hypocrisy. If you only understood how judgmental we have unfortunately become, as I attempt to explain in my letter, you will see the need for me to remain anonymous too. All I was doing was pointing out a problem. Why should I have to allow that specific problem to affect me too? As long as our community continues to criticize others over the most trivial of matters, even those pointing this out will remain anonymous for fear of the inevitable backlash.

Raphael Levi actually plays right into the problem by labeling my letter hypocritical. In other words, a well-written, thought-provoking letter is dismissed and labeled hypocritical; not due to its contents, but rather for the way the author chose to sign his name. Is this not a perfect example of how judgmental we have become?

Raphael Levi then quotes someone (anonymously, of course!) who said “anonymous letters will be thrown, unread, into the wastebasket.”

I find that particularly ironic considering that my original letter was (presumably) read by thousands of people, elicited three printed responses, and Raphael Levi himself took the time and effort to reply to it!

Let us all focus on the issue, the obvious problem of how judgmental we have become, and refrain from judging and criticizing those trying to bring awareness to it.