Dear Michael & fellow readers,

Thank you Michael for a thoughtful essay and citation. I think I will be re-reading it again over forthcoming days. Like many other people, my concern about the changes in our world exceed even my dislike and suspicion of Trump et al. I’m writing from Britain, as a person whose formative years were spent in the Republic of Ireland, and finally as one old enough to have observed the fall of the Berlin Wall, the implosion of the former Soviet Union, and then the decision to go to war in Iraq. It seems to me that our ‘West’ has plucked defeat from victory in a metaphorical way, hastened by the 2007/2008 banking crisis. I have no sympathy for Trump’s politics, none at all. My sympathy is with your Prime Minister Carney on this. I fear that worse is on the way, and our political leaders have very stiff times ahead to guide us through.

I had a very good exchange with another commentator yesterday (on a different substack post); in essence my correspondent reminded me that words matter on forums such as this. Perhaps your posts, Michael, are not yet being penetrated by bots and similar, which was one of the concerns expressed regarding the other substack post. So, I hope not to tilt the conversation in a wrong direction, but to emphasise that Michael Ignatieff’s essay today is very relevant to our thinking.

Anthony (in Scotland)