Sunday, April 09, 2017

Dying alone

In June 2015 police in Edinburgh were called by a GP because an elderly patient named Henry Summers had not been seen for several years. The police went to Henry's address on Easter Road, one of the most densely populated areas in Scotland. When the police knocked the door down they found a mountain of mail in the hall and Henry Summers was inside, dead. He had been dead for three years, undiscovered, because all of his bills were paid by direct debit. A few years before that, a woman had been found dead in Rodney Street, undiscovered for five years. Isabella Purves, was also understood paying her bills by direct debit. It is a story every town and city has shared. As long as you pay your bills, who cares about you. 
The alienation and atomisation of capitalist society.




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