Calls You By Your True Name

Haven't posted a random thought in a few weeks. I've been doing more reading and thinking, but not much communicating. I felt moved to post a comment to this entry at the blog Catholic Sensibility, on anonymity in blogging. The proprietor at that site makes a good point -

It is a mystery to me why a few well-known Catholic bloggers have opted for pseudonymity given their penchant for attack. Oh, I can understand a spouse or family insisting on anonymity. My wife would definitely prefer I not use my real name and link to my real locations. The phenomenon strikes me as similar to the superhero alter ego. In a way, a man or woman becomes a different person wearing the mask, the costume, the pseudonym. If you’re fighting the minions of evil, fine. If the modus operandi is to disenfranchise one’s ideological adversaries, bad show indeed. It would be better for anonymous or pseudonymous folks to just refrain from attack unless they’re willing to sign their name on the line. Once I told an e-mail correspondent if they were unwilling to show their posts to their spouse and parish pastor, why would they expect me to take them seriously as a believer with a cause?

My comment that I added there was this: All I really know about the bloggers I read, is what is on their pages. Whether they are identified with a real name or not, or provide personal information or not, their worth comes not from who they are (or how important they may think they are) but from what they write. I don't have time to just read mindless attacks, no matter how they're signed. There can be as many false accusations in a signed piece of writing as an unsigned one - sometimes more, if issued by some of the more self-righteous commentators.

That having been said, if I ever become so consumed with my own self-importance, and think that my opinions must be worth more than those of others, just because I'm me, I should probably utilize a different means of communicating them.