The Titanic submarine sank killing all passengers in mid-June. I was surprised at the glee some, even some people I knew to be very caring, had at their demise. When I asked one person, they replied that all those rich bastards likely deserved it. When I mentioned there were younger people on board, they said, "Well, they'd probably just grow up like their dads." Kill Hitler as a baby, I guess? I didn't quite get the vitriol JUST because they were rich. And, I guess, reckless and stupid.
But the murder of Brian Thompson, the late United Healthcare CEO ... that one I get. It's not just because he's rich. It's because his wealth was founded on the deaths of so many people that he and his company wrongly denied healthcare coverage. I don't think I need to go into the specifics of the murder. It's covered a LOT in the media right now. As is the reaction. People are, again, gleeful. But it's more than just apathy for the death of a wealthy person. It's a feeling that this was justified ... an execution rather than a murder. This is a pretty good summary of what I've heard.
Why does this not surprise me? Do you recall this scene from The Incredibles? Here, you have a good man, a hero, who has his soul being crushed because he's forced to deny coverage to people who paid for it, who deserve it ... who NEED it. And he lets the person know how to circumvent the bureaucracy so that they can get what they need.
The scene is followed by this scene where the manager/CEO berates the protagonist, prevents him from stopping a mugging and, subsequently, gets punched through multiple walls. We all cheer because this CEO is clearly the villain in the scene. Totally a Brian Thompson character.
But he's not the villain of the movie. The villain of the movie is SYNDROME! A SUPER-villain who kills supers in order to perfect a killing machine. He's the worst of the two, right?
Or is he? Syndrome has a list of about 15 people that he killed with his omni-droids or whatever they were called. But ... how many deaths was the insurance company manager responsible for? Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands? Maybe he just shortened the lives and is responsible for the loss of years in early deaths?
There's an exchange between Mr. Pump, a golem, and Moist Von Lipvig, a con artist, in Going Postal, one of the Discworld books. I, of course, highly recommend ALL of Pratchett's books (except for the final few), but this one is particularly good. There's a shockingly good movie version of it. Anyway, here's the exchange:
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"Do you understand what I'm saying?" shouted Moist. "You can't just go around killing people!"
"Why Not? You Do." The golem lowered his arm.
"What?" snapped Moist. "I do not! Who told you that?"
"I Worked It Out. You Have Killed Two Point Three Three Eight People," said the golem calmly.
"I have never laid a finger on anyone in my life, Mr Pump. I may be–– all the things you know I am, but I am not a killer! I have never so much as drawn a sword!"
"No, You Have Not. But You Have Stolen, Embezzled, Defrauded And Swindled Without Discrimination, Mr Lipvig. You Have Ruined Businesses And Destroyed Jobs. When Banks Fail, It Is Seldom Bankers Who Starve. Your Actions Have Taken Money From Those Who Had Little Enough To Begin With. In A Myriad Small Ways You Have Hastened The Deaths Of Many. You Do Not Know Them. You Did Not See Them Bleed. But You Snatched Bread From Their Mouths And Tore Clothes From Their Backs. For Sport, Mr Lipvig. For Sport. For The Joy Of The Game."
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Ouch!
Here's another quote from G.K. Chesterton's brilliant essay Democracy and Industrialism:
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Unfortunately, humanitarianism has been the mark of an inhuman time. And by inhumanity I do not mean merely cruelty; I mean the condition in which even cruelty ceases to be human. I mean the condition in which the rich man, instead of hanging six or seven of his enemies because he hates them, merely beggars and starves to death six or seven thousand people whom he does not hate, and has never seen, because they live at the other side of the world.
I mean the condition in which the courtier or pander of the rich man, instead of excitedly mixing a rare, original poison for the Borgias, or carving exquisite ornamental poignard for the political purposes of the Medici, works monotonously in a factory turning out a small type of screw, which will fit into a plate he will never see; to form part of a gun he will never see; to be used in a battle he will never see, and about the merits of which he knows far less than the Renaissance rascal knew about the purposes of the poison and the dagger.
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This one is even more damning because, instead of just the wealthy CEO, it shows how we're ALL participating in deaths worldwide. We're all culpable. But it also reinforces that distinction between Syndrome and the insurance manager or Luigi Mangione and the man he killed, Brian Thompson. Who is the greater monster? Who killed more?
So why are people cheering Mangione? Because they hate the men who kill by inches and never get justice. I honestly don't know how I feel about this one. Brian Thompson had kids. And I would prefer if the courts dealt with things like this. But ... really ... would he ever have faced justice in a court? There's a reason why people flocked to Superman when the comic was first released. It wasn't because he was saving people from aliens or supervillains or anything like that. He was saving them from the wealthy who were abusing the poor.
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