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In the final scene of Terrence Malick’s 1973 film badlandsThe recently arrested spree killer was sitting handcuffed next to a state trooper. Ignoring the electric chair The murderer then complimented the military’s state-issued Stetson. “You are quite an individual, Kit,” the soldier said. Kit looked at him and was silent: “Do you think they would consider that?”
Luigi Mangione, man charged with murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO It was quite an individual last week in Midtown Manhattan: a frozen bookworm. Certified Computer Genius Heir to wealth in Baltimore Or at least He seems to be quite an individual. Until he came across a statement about himself. And it makes clear that Mangione’s politics are commonplace and deplorable.
According to the police report The statement states, “These parasites are actually just emerging,” then lists some false or misleading statistics about America’s health care system. Companies “abuse our country to Huge profits,” Mangione said. Before you praise yourself for being “The first group to face (the problem) with such brutal honesty.”
Clichés cause a lack of thought. brutal honesty—I find that honesty and brutality often clash. Mangione admits that others Understanding the Failures of the U.S. Health Care System More than he understands So something really exotic. not honesty But it’s cruelty. What his statement suggests is honesty in its purest medical form.
In addition to social criticism, Mangione reportedly has personal grievances with medical treatment for his poor back. He lives in a co-living area in Honolulu and is a community leader, RJ Martin. tell The New York Times Mangione suffers from constant back pain that prevents him from having sex. Back pain is a nightmare. But it’s not clear what form prevents him from having sex. while leaving him free to stalk and kill a man. And ride an electric motorcycle out into Central Park in any case. We may sympathize with his pain. and even the frustration of trying to pursue compensation. But that would reduce his fight from an anti-capitalist crusade to a personal jihad against customer service agents. and reduce him from a propagandist of such acts to an armed Karen.
Even before Mangione’s arrest, when the public knew that a man walked up to an insurance executive and shot him repeatedly in the back, many seemed ready to turn the murderer into a folk hero. The avenger who thwarts the predatory capitalists in The Middle of the Swirling Tentacles, writer Taylor Lawrence, formerly of The Washington Post– The New York TimesAnd the magazine said she felt “happy” over the CEO’s execution and shared photos of the celebration. (with cartoon party balloons) that have been read CEO down– Looks like someone else has already received it. tattoo Mangione’s Tim Wu, Professor of Law at Columbia and former Biden administration officials Said he refused to “Accept violence” but Post on social media regarding their own unethical behavior UnitedHealthcare has “encouraged others” to “abandon core principles of ethics” – in this case by killing its own CEO. Senator Elizabeth Warren faces a similar problem in distinguishing between anger at the system and Broken and complicated medical care with the urge to kill “If you put enough pressure on people,” she said. tell HuffpoThey “began to take matters into their own hands.”
Woo Deleted His post It is not difficult to see the moral fallacy in his message. If one were to imagine the same kind of relief claimed, such as scalping a CEO or gently dunking him in a vat of boiling oil, feet first while his children His was forced to watch. Do health insurance companies encourage these forms of retaliation? In the spirit of friendliness I’m going to assume he’ll say that insurance company failures don’t explain or mitigate murder for the same reason they don’t mitigate these other horrific crimes: Murderers are like torturers. There may be moral failures within oneself. which is not related to UnitedHealthcare
On the contrary Lawrence had courage in which she had no confidence. After feeling the joy of the man’s passionate execution. She went to see Piers Morgan perform. chuckle She reasoned by saying: “Such greedy health insurance executives” have “murdered” tens of thousands of innocent people by denying their claims. She said the summary execution of the CEO was It “feels like justice,” although she added that she would rather “fix the system” than resort to murder.
“Philosophers analyze only the world.” Karl Marx write 1845 “But the point is to change” is a very long departure. Thesis on Feuerbach Laughing at Piers Morgan’s performance, Lorenz, like Mangione, gives no evidence of familiarity with discussions on the left about the use and abuse of violence – let alone recent ones. research About the power of nonviolence Moreover, she and Mangione seem to ignore Marx’s point, which is that world change is inseparable from the process of understanding it. in Mangione’s diary. It is reported that ridiculed the management of UnitedHealthcare says it holds “bean counting meetings,” as if counting beans isn’t an important part of allocating scarce resources.
Only the most curious moral observer could accuse this CEO, whom few activists knew until they started tattooing his assassin’s face on their legs. It’s a massacre. It was as if his company was hunting down customers and shooting them down the street. Claims that insurance company executives are murderers And thus it is fair game for the murderer. It is therefore the health care equivalent of Bertolt Brecht: not knowing who is the greatest thief. bank robber or the one who stole it But most serious Marxists hold the view that Only a well-regulated banking sector can an economy grow enough to enable people to live decent lives (in Cuba, one of the few countries where banking is still viewed in Brechtian terms, Poverty is so great that beggars approach tourists on the street to ask for leftover bars of soap they may have brought from overseas.) Smart people, on the other hand, don’t seem to realize that health care involves bartering. Countries without private insurance tend to ration it. And many health care systems that are healthier than our own still have comprehensive private insurance coverage. Run by a crazy bureaucracy which Sometimes claims are denied.
Then there’s the question of strategy. State soldiers who “Quite an individual” badlands Played in an unlikely cameo by John Womack Jr., then a famous leftist historian of Mexico, Womack The last book It calls on organizers to think strategically about how unions can force society to deal with workers equally. It uses workers’ technical expertise to help identify chokepoints in the economy where strikes will have the greatest impact. They can do this through purely voluntary action: no violence, no threats of violence, just people causing change in society by demonstrating how society works. And how can society fail without workers?
Sometimes it seems that activists learn nothing and forget everything. Consider Womack’s complex theory of social and economic change, which emerged from his careful study of electricians’ unions in Mexico. and compare it with the theory that to achieve health care reform We should wear hoodies. Shoots a man in the back and then gets caught eating an Egg McMuffin a few days later. and the joy that arises No one learns that the health care system is broken. But many of us are like that.
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