Letter: Pure fiction
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The prognostications of Ian Angell about satellite banking and the demise of the nation-state are as fictional as the scenario Matthew Sweet constructs on their basis ("A smart way to avoid the tax man", Review, 22 June). Such attempts to predict the future have a notoriously poor track record. I suggest that both authors are saying more about contemporary anxieties, Professor Angell converting these into simple- minded power fantasies, Mr Sweet offering profounder images of urban alienation. His citizen lives alone and evidently grew up in a lone-parent family. His larger world of city-states separated by primitive and dangerous "hinterlands" is a version of an old metaphor (which would have been recognised by Matthew Arnold and his Victorian readers) for the isolation of the individual.
Alan MacColl
St Andrews, Fife
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments