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CEO Down
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Recently, the American citizens have been united by one incident: the assassination of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare. This is the insurance company that statistically denies the most claims, the Boston Globe stating, “the company dismissed about one in every three claims in 2023—the most of any major insurer. That’s twice the industry average of 16 percent….”
There are many interesting details about this assassination. Examined side by side, we see how this ordeal has the qualities of performance art:
The contents of the killer’s bag: the NYPD found a backpack discarded in Central Park, in it being a jacket and Monopoly money.
Deny, Defend, Depose: the three words written on the shell casings from the bullets used to kill Brian Thompson. People made the immediate connection between these three words and the title of a 2010 book, “Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It” written by Jay M. Feinman. This book is a critical look at consumer rights and insurance laws, and how the industry prioritises making profits over serving clients.
Now let’s look at the man currently in custody, Luigi Mangione:
Mangione is 26 years old. In the United States, if your insurance is covered by your parent’s plan, the coverage ends when you turn 26. People online are discovering more information about him through his social media accounts, one tweet saying that Mangione “had back surgery a few months ago and went missing. No one had heard from him.” A BBC article outlined several facts that we know of Mangione at this moment: that he is “smart” and a “normal person” at school, and that a Goodreads account of the same name reviewed the Unabomber Manifesto, saying, “When all other forms of communication fail, violence is necessary to survive. You may not like his methods, but to see things from his perspective, it's not terrorism, it's war and revolution. 'Violence never solved anything' is a statement uttered by cowards and predators.”
He was recognized by a McDonald’s worker and reported to the police. Within his possessions, the police found a 3D printed gun, several fake IDs, and a 3-page writing criticizing corporate America. Going off of the assumption that Luigi Mangione is the same person who killed Brian Thompson, it seems a little ridiculous that just a day before everyone was praising him for orchestrating a perfect crime (the shell casings, the backpack, etc.) that he would be found with comically criminalizing evidence.
And I find it hard to believe that he didn’t have the expectation of being caught if he was carrying an *anti-corporation manifesto*, or perhaps somebody planted the evidence. Perhaps not every detail of this assassination is orchestrated, but every mistake is just a happy accident. What better place for art than New York City. There is no condemnation of violence in art, there is simply no point. You don’t condemn Yoko Ono’s audience for taking the shears to her clothes, you don’t condemn Chris Burden’s friend for shooting him in the arm. In fact, I think the world needs more artists. Especially performance art, a medium often overlooked by the art world…
Mangione is right in saying that violence is productive. See the article “Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield calls off surgery anesthesia cap”. Besides that, many call this assassination the most class-unifying event in a long time. It’s true, there’s nobody under the sun who doesn’t hate the American healthcare system. And one dead CEO may not atone to the thousands who died from lack of coverage, or the families and friends who go in debt while grieving, but it is igniting all the pent-up rage that people gained while living under American corporations. This assassination was allegedly done by a “smart”, “normal” Ivy League graduate, who doesn’t even seem to believe in leftist ideology. This could be done by anyone.
Despite the strong possibility of NYPD having made everything up, let me just say that I don’t not condone violence. I don’t not rejoice in the death of a bourgeoisie. And in this jolly month, I don’t not urge everyone to gather around a big dinner table and realise the struggle that unifies us all.
References:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/12/05/data/unitedhealthcare-claim-denial-rates/
https://apnews.com/article/unitedhealthcare-ceo-shooting-delay-deny-defend-depose-ee73ceb19f361835c654f04a3b88c50c
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay,_Deny,_Defend?wprov=sfti1#
https://www.healthcare.gov/young-adults/children-under-26/
https://x.com/lukewgoldstein/status/1866199595229057086?s=46&t=mhJepmMECgleyBy3W9_1fQ
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp9nxee2r0do.amp
https://www.axios.com/2024/12/05/blue-cross-blue-shield-anesthesia-anthem-connecticut-new-york
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