When Anancy rules the web – a tangled economy

THE EDITOR, Madam:

I think the era of true Anancyism became most pronounced with the explosion of the Internet on the world stage. Anancy has always found novel ways to offer apparent benefits as traps, as may be observed in places like Half-Way Tree and Cross Roads areas where regular ‘fingersmiths’ pitch business. However, it is noteworthy that for any Anancy to run a successful business, it requires the compliance of another equally devious trickster, whose aim is to outsmart the top Anancy.

Thus, there are more ginnals around than you may imagine. For example, because physical pickpocketing has become unproductive and basically archaic with the passing years, electronic defrauding aimed at bank accounts has been established as the new way of raking in millions.

There has been a mushrooming of fingersmiths in recent times, especially in pyramid and other get-rich schemes which often appear on the scene with renewed zest. Recent news of cybercrimes are just instances of Bro Anancy spreading his claws globally. Maybe politicians were the early frontrunners in the world of razzle-dazzle and web gymnastics, but deception is apparently what the world is, and where there is net profit, there are also tangled benefits..

HOMER SYLVESTER

New York