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| Luigi Mangione, the new American Narodnaya Volya |
Luigi, the anti-corporate assassin captured rather ironically at a McDonalds, has cited the Unabomber as an inspiration, but the Unabomber's idiosyncratic paranoia did not widely resonate.
Luigi may be just as nuts, it's hard to say at this point, but he had enough awareness to choose a much more publicly relevant, and widely hated, target in healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
On first impression, I'd say he also has a lot in common with the Narodnaya Volya.
In the late 1880's, a group of socialist revolutionaries in Imperial Russia called the Narodnaya Volya set out to effect social change through targeted political assassinations. They believed these selective murders would provide the spark that would ignite the peasantry against the regime, as peaceful means of affecting change had yielded no results.
Luigi seems to be thinking along the same lines. Is he an isolated case, or is he the harbinger of much worse to come?
Already, one healthcare company that was going to raise rates decided not to in the wake of Brian Thompson's assassination. On one level, that's good. On another, it sets a very, very bad precedent: it shows violence and intimidation works. And if you let people know that violence works, what will you get more of?
Go on, guess.
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| Plotters plotting to bump off important people before Survivor |
The outpouring of anger and derision at Thompson's murder, the crocodile tears and laughing emojis, all show that something is truly, deeply wrong with American healthcare insurance providers.
With Donald Trump, every oligarch's best buddy, about to reoccupy the Whitehouse and make America safe for rapacious billionaires again, it doesn't look like change is going to be forthcoming any time soon. At least, not positive change. Just look at how many billionaires are buzzing around Trump like... oh, you know what.
We are entering a new Gilded Age, where the rich flaunt their wealth and openly try to buy the political system. According to Robert Reich, "815 billionaires saw their combined wealth sky rocket by at least $280 billion after Trump's win." And new tax cuts are forthcoming... for the rich, naturally. "The net worth of the twelve wealthiest people just passed $2 trillion." Unbelievable. We're going to be talking about trillionaires soon. None of this is good. Wealth polarization is a sign of increasing social instability. Remember, Monopoly the game is and always has been a warning, not a how to.
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| The assassination of Alexander II of Russia |
Ever since The Powell Memo in the Nixon Administration, when Big Business organized to roll back the accomplishments of Organized Labour, 50 trillion has been transferred from the middle to the top. Salaries of executives have exploded, stock buy backs have been made legal again, areas of the economy monopolized, and banks and reckless stockbrokers bailed out and given bonuses, while the rest of the country has been left in the dust.
One of the great things about FDR's New Deal and LBJ's Great Society is that they provided a safety net for people who fell on hard times. It helped America avoid becoming a completely polarized dystopia. Now these safety nets are potentially at risk, because the insatiable billionaires just can't help themselves. If they aren't careful, they'll cook their own goose.
And that doesn't even get to the healthcare issue in the US, which is a monstrous, twisted, inefficient and insatiable beast. As former Secretary of Labour (under Clinton) Robert Reich says, "We spend twice as much on healthcare and have the worst health outcomes. Reminder that Medicare For All would save $450B in health care costs and 68,000 lives per year." Take a look at his site. He's a reasonable man with a lot to say. Give him a follow on social media.
When serial killers get publicized, we tend to get more serial killers. When mass shootings are publicized, we get more mass shootings.
Let's just hope this doesn't give anyone ideas.
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| "Well, that didn't go quite as I thought it would." |
