Let’s Talk About Luigi
I mean, let’s really talk about it
It’s easy to say that killing people is wrong, but that doesn’t make the statement true, at least not always. Killing someone in the defense of oneself, or in defense of others is considered in most cases to not only be morally permissible, but sometimes necessary. It’s why the law includes protections for those who act in self-defense, and it is also why our military exists, and why it needs to exist.
But when a healthcare company CEO is shot and killed on the streets of Midtown Manhattan, definitions get a bit murky, to say the least. That said, the facts themselves are not in dispute. Luigi Mangione, former valedictorian at the prestigious Gilman School and Ivy League graduate, did in fact shoot and kill United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. No one contests the events themselves. However, the moment we ask why it happened, things get more complex.
One of the most well-known moral theories in modern philosophy is called utilitarianism, and that theory defines right action simply as the acts that result in the greatest amount of good for the largest number of people. Whenever we hear people talking about “the greater good” and what we are willing to do to achieve it, this is the theory being referenced. It’s why terms like “white lies” and “good trouble” exist. Sometimes, in order to preserve the greater good, we have to do some harm or break a few rules along the way. In that sense, it is precisely the argument Elon Musk is using to justify our recent nosedive into American fascism. He argues – incorrectly, mind you – that he’s destroying democracy in the service some future Utopia. It’s what all dictators argue. And like all proper narcissists, Elon is full of shit, but Luigi may not be.
The greater good is also what Luigi argues for in the journal authorities are referring to as a “manifesto.” He argues that while we spend more than any nation on healthcare, we rank a dismal 42nd in life expectancy. Honestly, it’s not an argument he needs to make to American working families. Anyone who has ever come in contact with our healthcare system knows it is really just a means to make the rich richer by killing the rest of us. That much simply cannot be refuted, and I welcome anyone to try. But does this system of mass murder we call healthcare justify violence, even murder to disrupt it? I don’t know, but if we’re having that discussion, then we are finally really talking about Luigi.
I don’t know if Luigi’s actions are right or wrong. I know I wouldn’t convict him, but I’m also not going to be in the jury pool, so that matters little. But in this mess of greed and blood, I see at least an attempt to do a greater good. After all, Luigi appears to have had no personal grievance with Thompson, and Thompson’s company is not only the largest in the business, but it also denies more claims than any other private insurer.
And while killing someone is a direct act, letting someone die is more of an indirect crime, but it is one that insurers and CEOs like Brian Thompson commit hundreds if not thousands of times per week. This implies that Luigi’s actions, right or wrong, appear to be an attempt to effect the largest change and create what one could easily argue is “the greater good.” After all, if we ask ourselves which of the two people involved in this crime is responsible for more death, Thompson wins the race by thousands, perhaps tens of thousands or more.
On the day of Luigi’s first court appearance, the corporate machine rolled out all the cameras and perp-walked Luigi for everyone to see. Every network ran the event live. They had their villain, and they wanted him publicly scorned. And then something happened; the crowd that gathered did not boo. Luigi was not a demon in their eyes, and they cheered him. Right now, his popularity is growing and social media content admiring him is everywhere. The courts may convict him, but the public seems to disagree.
That’s why no one on legacy media’s payroll is writing about him, and you never, ever see a story about him on the nightly news. The powers that be know there is a brutally honest conversation going on among America’s working class right now, and it may end with mobs and torches and pitchforks. And nothing scares the CEO class more than the unwashed masses gathering to take back what’s ours.
I’m not saying I want that day to come, but if it does, and I have to choose between the devil I know and the one I don’t, look for me in the mob. I’ll be the one in the Ohio State Buckeyes hat carrying a torch in one hand and FDR’s Bill of Economic Rights in the other.
Brett Pransky is a writer, a teacher, a father, and a husband, but rarely in that order. He spends his days fighting for working families as the Executive Producer of The Rick Smith Show, and his nights trying to fix the world one clever sentence at a time.
If wealthy CEO’s are nervous now, just wait for all the people losing their Medicaid!
My thinking is this Luigi situation might have been a 'suicide by murder'. Luigi was calm, on the phone before the shooting, arrived in NYC 2 days before the agenda of the meeting was published so how would he know the CEO was even in town? CEO had been threatened but did not have security with him, CEO was under investigation for fraud and insider trading. I think CEO wanted his family to receive the insurance money in the case of his demise.