To those who are familiar with the history of the civil war (which all citizens should be) John Brown was a vigilante abolitionist who committed acts of violence and murder as a mission from God to free the slaves. He is credited by some as being the single most important factor in pushing the south to initiate the civil war.
Since we are now fighting economic slavery, is Luigi Mangione the new John Brown?
I was thinking before you posted this that it was a good analogy. I think anyone who saw the kindling and sparks of the healthcare situation were not surprised by it; it was to be expected.
In the long run such extralegal actions won’t get what you want, because the megawealthy will then ALSO resort to extralegal actions -so it then becomes a race to a lawless banana republic society. If anything good comes out of it in terms of healthcare reform, that would be great. But it won’t happen as long as The Duopoly Parties owned by corporations and oligarchs are at the steering wheel of our political process. There used to be a sense among them that there was only so much that people will tolerate, but living in their bubbles they have lost touch and are no longer getting it.
These blackholes of capital accumulation are pathological and demonstrate a normalization of and surrender to the mental illness of those who have crafted them. Brian Thompson was defended by citing his work with the Handicapped Olympics. Does no one find a problem with his absurd compensation for figuring out ways to deny coverage all the while helping the handicapped? That’s a contradiction; that’s schizophrenic -that was mental illness, and people at his company overseeing compensation should have thought twice.
As I said once before on this forum: healthcare will always have to be rationed, and people will always be pissed at the ones deciding how it is rationed. But to then give lavish rewards for doing it, and increasing compensation for figuring out how to deny even more coverage, that’s just plain wrong.
To quote Josh Shapiro from a different context: no “civil” society would allow it. Go back to the Eisenhower era, a halcyon time of conservative philosophy -we didn’t allow it then! [Compare the tax rates from then and now…]
The present healthcare system benefits insurance companies that deny coverage out of hand and the lawyers who litigate the cases denying coverage. What’s the biggest profession of people in Congress who made the healthcare laws? Lawyers -look at how that worked out! It needs a different approach, limiting liability, which will then cut down on ass-covering excessive expensive testing, and malpractice insurance premiums, in exchange for not getting mugged when you are billed. A program for Emergency Room visits would be a great place to start; then at least we could get triage care for when it’s something serious.
Mangione will probably end up on an insanity plea, and will have to experience the hell of perpetual group therapy, until he dies.
The people who did his legal fundraiser (he doesn’t need it because his family is picking up his legal…) -I don’t understand why they are not flipping the money over to people in litigation with United Healthcare (I heard it was going to go to some other unrelated cause…)
Hero worship can distract from the shared responsibility we all have in addressing systemic issues.
You’re right—change won’t come while corporate interests dominate both parties.
How do we address the cultural acceptance of greed and profit over human dignity, particularly in healthcare?