We don't need another hero... But we want one
The murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson led to praise of vigilante justice
On December 4, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was murdered in New York City by a well-organized killer whose bullet casings were stamped with the words deny, defend, & depose. This event led to an outpouring of stories documenting how UnitedHealthcare’s delays in approving procedures, denial of care, and defense of their own actions have led to countless deaths and long-term health issues for those who have survived. It quickly became apparent that the policies Thompson supported put the blood of multitudes on his hands.
While most murders in this nation are met with the diligent efforts of an overworked detective or two, the murder of Thompson led to a massive manhunt. In a matter of days, suspect Luigi Mangione was apprehended in a McDonalds in Pennsylvania.
To many, Mangione has become the focus of praise. He has become the hero we do not need, but many seem to want.
But why? What social pressures could lead everyday people to see a hero when they look at a wealthy, good-looking man suspected of murder?
I have spent enough of my life lost in the streets of Gotham and Star City to think maybe I have an answer; in Luigi, we see the vigilante trying to bring justice in an unfair world. The DC universe has taught me that there are terribly broken men and women (Jessica Jones, for instance) whose lives have been turned upside down, and they deal with their own pain and suffering by trying to be a hero to others. Through the DC Extended Universe, we watched on TV as the Green Arrow - just a normal guy with way too much money - trained until his body and reflexes allowed him to do essentially superhuman things, things that make him a superhero. We have, through movies and TV shows, watched a young Bruce Wayne hone his body and build armor and technology that allow him to step in and take on the bad guys. Sure, canonically, both heroes only killed when they had no choice.* They both wanted to see justice served by the legal system.
But when the legal system is clearly overrun by “bad guys,” Batman would work outside it to take down the system and replace it with men he saw as just.
This is the hero we’ve been trained to see as good: the rich billionaire who can define the moral compass of an entire city and who can leverage his resources to replace anyone who he sees as unjust.
In suspect Mangione, we see a wealthy, good-looking man accused of taking out a CEO responsible for an organization choosing profits over lives.
The story we see playing out is right from a comic book, and we are here eagerly awaiting each new issue while our social conditioning makes us wonder, will others take up the mantel and help destroy an unjust healthcare system and possibly a few other systems that lead to the harm of the working class?
If this were a movie, this is where the director would insert a montage of people donning their own costumes, stamping words on their own bullets, and going out to take out the billionaires.
Murder is wrong … but vigilante justice looks so good on film.
The vast gulf in income between the haves and the have-nots is putting the US population into conditions typically seen just before a revolution or social uprising occurs. In the 1950s, families could buy a house and a car and live off the income of a high school-educated man with a good factory job. Today, a good single-bedroom apartment in a city requires dual incomes and maybe a side hustle or 3. This kind of workload is becoming unsustainable (writes the woman with two side hustles).
Gen X and younger recognize the impossibility of retirement and live in fear of medical bills. It is not uncommon for people to delay seeing doctors out of fear of costs. These folks may end up with advanced and harder-to-treat health problems due to these delays. I am guilty of this. In 2010, I was tossed off a horse and landed badly. My husband was there, and I told him to call 911. He said we had just lost our health insurance… so I decided to try and walk it off. For 3 weeks, I went through life with a dislocated pelvis. The only reason I got an x-ray was a friend knew a chiropractor who would do free x-rays on your first visit and would take a cash payment just within affordability. It turns out a chiropractor can fix a dislocated pelvis, but I will have pain for the rest of my life because I waited to get medical care, and now the bones will never sit exactly right.
Even folks with medical insurance will avoid doing what they should because of costs. Last week, I sat with a woman who had fallen down the stairs and possibly broken her ankle in a hotel lobby. She was in a lot of pain, but when the hotel staff offered to call an ambulance, there was an adamant and desperate “NO.” I looked at her and said, “Please, let them get you a wheelchair, and when your husband gets here, take a taxi to Urgent Care for an x ray. That way, you know if it’s broken, and you don’t have to pay for the ambulance or ER.” She relaxed (as much as you can relax with a possibly broken ankle) when presented with an option that didn’t include the impossible costs of a definitely out-of-network emergency. This is where we are as a nation - university faculty with potentially broken ankles will adamantly refuse ambulances.
This situation can make anyone yearn for a vigilante healthcare hero.
In The Dark Knight, James Gordon says of Batman, “He's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we'll hunt him. Because he can take it. Because he's not our hero.” He knew that what Batman was doing was wrong, yet he also knew that in a city as corrupt as Gotham, perhaps the city deserved vigilante justice. Simultaneously, as a just man, he knew they had to - at least sorta - hunt Batman for his crimes. Corruption might deserve justice through unjust means, but that didn’t mean the system wouldn’t fight to create justice for all.
But in our real world, there isn’t justice for all, and it appears that this is how the system is now designed to work. Women are arrested for miscarriages and accused of murder, while poor girls kidnapped by sex traffickers are no one’s priority. The homeless person found murdered is just another John Doe to bury in a pauper’s unmarked grave. Who cares? Not the system; it doesn’t have time to care.
If you have money, the legal system treats you differently.
Consider the mass deportations planned in 2025. It is unclear what it will look like, but there is talk of building camps to house massive crowds of people without proper visas. These plans are being proclaimed as good by a former illegal immigrant - Elon Musk - who is advising an incoming president - Donald Trump - who is married to a former illegal alien - Melania Trump. For deportations, apparently, it only matters if you are or were an illegal alien if you happen to not be rich. The rich need not fear being rounded up and taken to the camps. (It is becoming clear that skin color matters… but that is a subject for someone with more understanding of that than I have.)
We no longer have justice for all. Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric doesn’t apply to his wife, her family, or rich men like Elon Musk.
In this reality, it is easy to see Mangione as the hero our corrupt system deserves.
That doesn’t make murder right. It just makes it understandable.
In Tina Turner’s hit “We don’t need another hero” she writes/sings, “And, I wonder when we are ever gonna change, change // Living under the fear, 'til nothing else remains.” To the doom-scrolling masses, this is where we are. Dread of what comes next fills the hearts of millions as they wonder, “What happens if my pregnancy has complications?” “What happens if my neighbors and friends are rounded up as illegals and the factory has to close down for lack of workers?” “What if my spouse is deported even though they have a green card?” “What will happen to my job if trillions are truly cut from the US Budget?”
We are living in fear, and to the folks doomscrolling the news and social media, nothing else remains.
But we don’t need a hero like Mangione. We need societal change.
As Turner goes on to write, “There's gotta be something better out there // Ooh, love and compassion // Their day is coming (coming) // All else are castles built in the air.” Kamala Harris and Tim Walz ran on a platform of compassion, but apparently, we are still at the building castles in the air stage of American history. To keep going, we need to believe that in some not-too-distant future, change will come, no hero required.
For now, we must ask, “what do we do with our lives… will our story shine like a light or end in the dark?” Turner is clear: we must “Give it all or nothing” because a half-assed attempt can be worse than nothing.
We don’t need another hero. All we want is life beyond the doomscroll.
And maybe our society deserves someone like Mangione to wake us up, but we did hunt him down.
*Batman and Green Arrow mostly didn’t kill. There were exceptions. For instance, Batman certainly let Ra’s al Ghul die when he did have a choice.
Preach! Excellent commentary.
I think Illinois has a pretty good system. Medicaid if you are really poor, and Obamacare ACA if you're low income. With ACA, the policy cost scales as your income rises. I like the concept of people with low incomes getting essentially free Medicaid healthcare, and the people paying in what they should be able to afford as their income rises with the ACA policies.
Many Red states don't have easy access for the poor to get Medicaid.