I’ll start with something that should be flamingly obvious.
Murder is a bad idea and I shouldn’t do it. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2268-2269)
By murder, I mean deliberately killing an innocent person. Which is what someone who apparently expressed “ill will” against corporate America has been charged with.
This isn’t what I’ll be talking about in my ‘Saturday’ post. But an insurance executive from Minnesota getting killed is still international news, and the situation touches on points I think are important.
Some expert said the way folks are reacting is “deeply concerning”.
I see the expert’s point, so I’ll say how I see Brian Thompson’s abrupt death.
I’ll also say why I’m not praising his killer — calling for the proletariat to rise up and make the streets run red with the blood of capitalist oppressors — or saying that we never had these problems in the 1950s, and anybody who’s richer than me deserves death.
First, though, something from today’s news.
‘Oh, My Aching Back’??
“Who is Luigi Mangione, CEO shooting suspect?”
Madeline Halpert, Mike Wendling; BBC News (December 10, 2024)“…The three-page, handwritten document found on him suggested a motive, according to investigators. The pages expressed ‘ill will’ towards corporate America, they said.
“A senior law enforcement official told the New York Times it said: ‘These parasites had it coming’ and ‘I do apologise for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done’….
“…Friends have told US media he had surgery on his back. The background image on an X account believed to belong to Mangione shows an x-ray of a spine with hardware in it.
“However, it is unclear how much his own experience of the healthcare system shaped his views.
“A person matching his name and photo had an account on Goodreads, a user-generated book review site, where he read two books about back pain in 2022, one of them called Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry….”
Maybe this person’s experience with my country’s healthcare system affected his opinions regarding its effectiveness. I’d be astounded if they didn’t.
If he’d started out as a devout believer in the efficacy of American insurance agencies and the supreme excellence of each medical practitioner, I can see how dealing with our realities might come as a shock.
But I don’t think that’s an excuse for killing someone. Even if the someone was a top executive in the insurance industry.
And that brings me to a news item discussing opinions expressed in social media — which I don’t, by the way, see as the reason some folks act like twits.
I can’t prove it, but I’m pretty sure the twit quotient hasn’t changed much since the days when the telephone and television were — allegedly — causing the end of civilization as we know it. And that’s another topic.
‘For the Greater Good’??
“Why top internet sleuths say they won’t help find the UnitedHealthcare CEO killer”
“TikTok users who would normally leap at the chance to identify an alleged criminal are standing down during the manhunt for the killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.”
Melissa Chan, Kalhan Rosenblatt NBC News (December 6, 2024)“… ‘I have yet to see a single video that’s pounding the drum of “we have to find him,” and that is unique,’ said Michael McWhorter, better known as TizzyEnt on TikTok, where he posts true crime and viral news content for his 6.7 million followers. ‘And in other situations of some kind of blatant violence, I would absolutely be seeing that.’…
“… ‘The surge of social media posts praising and glorifying the killing of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson is deeply concerning,’ Alex Goldenberg, a senior adviser at The Network Contagion Research Institute at Rutgers University previously told NBC News. (Thompson was CEO of UnitedHealthcare, not of UnitedHealth Group, its parent company.)…”
Repeating what I said before: murder isn’t nice, and I shouldn’t do it.
It’s also something I shouldn’t encourage. That wouldn’t be helping the common good, something I should be doing. I talked about that a couple months back:
“…I think that I should act as if loving God, and my neighbors, matters. And that everybody is my neighbor. (Matthew 5:43–44, 7:12, 22:36–40, Mark 12:28–31; 10:25–27, 29–37; Catechism, 1789)
“I’m also obliged to do what’s possible in public life. That includes recognizing humanity’s solidarity and respecting authority. Within reason. (Catechism, 1778, 1915, 1897-1917, 1939-1942, 2199, 2238-2243)…”
(From “Voting As If What I Believe Matters”, Obligations, (October 26, 2024))
One way or another, I’ve been bumping into my country’s “healthcare system” all my life.
I’ve got opinions, good and otherwise, about individuals. About the system as a whole: in my opinion, it could be worse. And it could be a whole lot better.
But I do not think killing some CEO is a good idea.
Maybe I would, if I somehow convinced myself that he single-handedly had shaped America’s healthcare organizations over the last half-century — and that without him, everybody would start acting nice and nobody would act stupidly, and – – – -.
But I don’t, so I won’t.
I will, however, outline why I think committing murder ‘for the greater good’ is a bad idea.
First, an over-simplified look at what makes a particular act “good” or “bad”. Turns out that how I feel about it is — yet another topic.
Whether something I do is good or bad depends on three things (Catechism, 1750)
- The object I choose
- The end in view, or my intention
- The circumstances of my action
A few actions are simply wrong: no matter why, how, or where I do them. And doing something that’s objectively wrong, even if I have some good outcome in mind, is a bad idea and I shouldn’t do it. “…One may not do evil so that good may result from it.” (Catechism 1755-1756)
We Have Problems, This Isn’t a Solution
Now, was the CEO of UnitedHealthcare “innocent”?
I’ll express my opinion, which is that he was not solely responsible for situations which have been developing since my childhood, at least.
I don’t even think that he could, by virtue of his position as CEO, untangle the bureaucratic snarl we call a healthcare system. Maybe he could have sorted out some of the mess: but that’s something we’ll never know.
Will killing this CEO help make American healthcare less of a problem with folks who are sick or injured? Probably not. But even if that were so: that doesn’t make killing him a good idea.
And I don’t see praising another killer as a reasonable approach to fixing one of my country’s problems.
Good grief. I should have proofed this before posting it. I’ve fixed a typo, and here’s the seemingly-inevitable list of other stuff that’s vaguely related:
- “Principles, Priorities, Politics: and Being Catholic”
(September 21, 2024) - “Liberal? Conservative? Republican? Democrat? No: Catholic”
(July 27, 2024) - “Capital Punishment: It Could be Worse”
(February 3, 2024) - “A Prescription, Disorders, Conformity and Culture”
(May 20, 2023) - “Euthanasia for the Mentally Ill: Not a Good Idea?”
(January 18, 2023)
My gosh, another instance of Minnesota madness? I’m surprised that I haven’t encountered the idea of Minnesota being the next Florida or the American Midwest’s equivalent of Florida going viral yet.
That silliness aside, though, I am unsurprised as much as I am concerned by that glorification of murder. Same goes with the carelessly neutral memery about the murder. And this has me thinking some more about my history of dishing out unforgiveness via words, especially against men more toxic than I am, alongside my desire to make a name for myself in pop and nerd culture as much as the faith. And recently, I am being reminded about the greater efficiency of prevention compared to cure, with the former likely being something within my currently doubting reach. Really, I wonder about how you developed your style of writing here, Mr. Gill, because it is reassuringly challenging as much as it is clearly recurring.
Yeah – on the whole, I don’t mind my home state having a fairly low-profile national reputation. And that appalling murder – my biases being what they are, I could claim that the victim’s main fault was foolishly visiting New York City without a heavily-armed escort.
The murder was bad enough. Responses to it – both those cheering the killer, and those using this as another opportunity to express their fear of a particular technology – – – – those, I could do without.
The anger I understand well enough. I am very good at getting and staying angry. And have been devoting significant time and effort to learning how to notice and control my anger.
Displaying anger as – maybe – a means of establishing status as one filled with (self?) righteous indignation: that’s nothing new. The slogans change, human nature in its current form doesn’t.
Preventing incidents like that murder, and other appalling acts – – – in the long run, I agree: that would take less effort and do less damage than having emotional meltdowns each time they happen. Less effort in the long run. Doing so would, however, require looking at the very serious problems making such incidents more likely – – – which I think would be both difficult and embarrassing for the important folks who inadvertently arranged for the current mess.
And yes, I’m biased.
About my style of writing? Styles, since I haven’t lined up words quite the same way for each purpose.
I started writing in my early teens. I’d been reading, a lot, before that. I’ve been writing one thing or another ever since – – – as I see it, it’s another one of those skills that slowly get a little more polished, the more someone practices. 🙂
And thanks for taking time to respond to this/these posts!