A news story, back in February, is what has prompted this blog posting. Here are a few excerpts, so you'll know what I am talking about:
Even when he was just a wanted man smiling in a surveillance picture, Luigi Mangione elicited a fervent response from some Americans. Now identified and charged in the brazen fatal shooting of a health care executive, his influence has persisted, even from behind bars....
The positive response has horrified many Americans who were shocked by the brutality of the crime of which Mr. Mangione is accused: assassinating Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, in Manhattan. But in the nearly three months since the shooting, the groundswell of interest and support has been sustained....
In a 15th-floor hallway, about 100 young women lined benches and sat on the floor. Some wore red sweaters with white-collared shirts, an apparent homage to Mr. Mangione’s outfit during his last court appearance....
As Mr. Mangione’s lawyers walked onto the floor, the crowd erupted in cheers and applause (emphasis added).
I am not writing out of any sense of "horror." I contend, and I will continue to contend, that we, collectively, "create" the world in which we most immediately live. As the title of my blog states, "we live in a political world," and we can make that world into whatever kind of world we want. That includes deploying a health care system that provides "Health Care For All." Building and creating the world in which we live is, to use that word again, a "collective" endeavor. We are "in this together," and our collective actions are the "political" actions that create, and alter, the human and "political" world we inhabit together.
But we are "individuals," too, and each one of us can do something new, something never even thought about before, and can, by doing that, inspire the collective actions that will transform the realities we, ourselves, create.
Of course, we can also act, individually, in ways that are not "new," but that are tried and true, time-tested.
Killing people is nothing new!
Anyone who cheers on murder, and finds in that an inspiration, has not been studying history. We know what murder brings.
More death.
I was pleased to see what political consultant Anat Shenker-Osorio said in a recent online conversation with Anand Giridharadas. She was commenting on a widespread loss of faith in the normal channels of political change - for instance, faith that we can have a fair system that provides "Health Care For All":
It's extraordinary the degree to which people, even low information, low engagement folks, think the jig is up on that particular theory of change.
And so I think we are now in a place in which people need to be directed, their anger and their ire need to be directed into what I am calling the “Mangione without murder” strategy. Without murder. Hear that whole phrase.
You really do know how to coin a phrase.
Yeah, we don't need to be murdering people. I just want to say on the record here that I'm telling you. Anti-murder. I'm anti-murder, whatever you heard, whatever they told you. Sharp messages, no sharp weapons (emphasis aded).
Before cheering on Mangione, in other words, let's think about Martin Luther King, Jr. Let's think about Mohandas Gandhi.
Let's think how we might truly do something new, something transformative. Something that does not suggest that death is a solution to the problems of life.
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I read about the Lori and educated speaking on different topics about the wise and how but my belief is to focus on the school system that pumps out these kids who are not receiving any kind of social skills or learned teachers who are not focused on the child tiles development mentally They’re just going through the motions. I think it’s dire that we implement a well check on these kids, not just horridly put them through the system to graduate without the skills in place. I’ve posted many things about the school systems fails and I get responses by parents that it should be taught at home. They may be correct however What if parents are failing these children as well must reform our school system. Bring back home back teach our children how to be respectful grade them on their well-being only on their education, please
ReplyDeleteGreat comment! And thank you!!
DeleteAbsolutely—every choice we make is shaped by the systems around us. 'We live in a political world' isn't just a statement, it's a call to stay aware and engaged. I explore similar reflections on society, power, and culture over at HeroLuigi.com—feel free to check it out and join the conversation!
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