To The Hereafter

Of course, a United Healthcare CEO was assassinated just days after an election where Democrats can’t seem to grasp why people are so mad at the institutions that run the country. The pearl-clutching was almost immediate. Democrats, Republicans, and media types of all stripes lined up to scold working-class America for its understandable schadenfreude. These talking heads would begin with an admission of the poor way healthcare is administered in this country, an acknowledgment of the anger people feel towards health insurance companies in particular, and finish with a patronizing rant about how violence isn’t the answer and how any complaints should be taken up at the ballot box. All in all, it is a laughable response to a widespread lack of empathy at the murder of just one of many avatars of a broken system.

But that’s the story of modern America, right? Intractable problems get dealt with on the margins while people are repeatedly reminded to take their issues up at the ballot box. It can be a frustrating gambit, delivering meaningful results in fits and starts via a system that has been corrupted and degraded in so many ways that those with power are rarely at risk of losing it. And even when people protest the slippage, they are then reprimanded by the elites’ media lackeys, saying they need to take their concerns up during the next election.

And on the few occasions where there is such visceral rage at the slow pace of change, that people take an unprecedented often violent step to seize what they have so demanded for years? The system snaps into action to snuff it out.

These kinds of violent flare-ups have happened many times in our country’s history. In response to the rage of the ‘60s, Martin Luther King Jr. said, “A riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear?...It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met.” This was in response to questions he received from journalists and others who seemed more worried about the wreckage of a riot without even bothering to do the basic journalistic duty of asking why.

King rightly viewed the riots of his day as an explosive outcry against a political and corporate establishment that refused to listen. While the tactics of these events may be violent, vindictive, and chaotic, analyzing the reasoning behind these cracks in “polite society” can be instructive if folks are willing to listen. These outbursts against “societal norms” aren’t uncommon. American history is littered with these short circuits, and they come in many forms: the Rodney King riots, Occupy WallStreet, the #MeToo Movement, the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, the Free Palestine Student Protests, and now this, all of them evoking a feeling of justice long denied and trying to capture some small sense of justice being served.

This should be a wake-up call to corporate America that something is deeply wrong and that this is just a glimpse of what’s in store should the American people realize the true source of their economic troubles. This is the natural result of a people realizing that terrible truth and not being provided by the powers that be a valid effective way of making change. The system short circuits, and vigilante justice results.

Let me be clear. I’m not calling for more dead CEOs. In a just and functional society, there would be no need for this type of violence. What I am worried about is that capitalist America won’t take the hint and that it will take more violence and anger for them to come to their senses. I am also worried that Democrats will not seize the clear opportunity before them to champion this anger and be true advocates for alternative bold solutions that don't involve murder.

In the past week, Taylor Lorenz has written here, here, and here about the understandable and legitimate outrage she and others feel about the healthcare industry. She has taken significant heat from corporate media for the sin of agreeing with the sentiment and offering up a willingness to understand why people might feel the way they do. At the forefront of all this handwringing is none other than the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post condemning the celebration of this type of violence, not once but multiple times in its op-ed pages. Is Jeff Bezos worried?

Well, maybe the corporate shills and media nerds will understand if I put this another way. If this murder convinces United Healthcare to bring their denial rate for claims merely in line with the industry average, how many lives would that save? I’d say it’s a lot more than one, and if it costs one life to make that change, is it all that bad? I’m just asking questions. I’ll let you answer that for yourself.

That said, I am skeptical that any meaningful change will come from this. It is sad to see that in a situation like this, with such an outpouring of rage and demand for change, media organizations are more than willing to put any shred of credibility they still possess on the line to defend their corporate benefactors. It’s a little rich, borderline gross negligence, for them to feign any level of surprise and shock at the reaction to all of this. Their paternalistic tsk-tsking towards the masses, reminding everyone that this poor executive had a family or that well actually health insurance companies aren’t the only ones complicit in driving up the cost of healthcare misses the point.

The election results were a blinking red light that people are furious with how things are run in this country broadly. Many people embedded in political and corporate America ignored those signs. This should be a smack in the face. People don’t care about all the little intricacies of how the world fucks them over every day. All they know is that they are tired of it and want something new. Perhaps now, if the powers that be are wise, they might care to listen.