“The percentage you’re paying is too high a price
While you’re living beyond all your means
And the man in the suit has just bought a new car
From the profit he’s made on your dreams
But today you just read that the man was shot dead
By a gun that didn’t make any noise
But it wasn’t the bullet that laid him to rest was
The low spark of high-heeled boys”
—The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys, a hit song by Traffic.
Rejoicing amidst delusions of sweeping mandate following a close presidential election is as premature as the scene in “The Producers” (1967) where con artists salute their success when the curtain rises on “Springtime for Hitler.”
“The law of unintended consequences” does not exist; only denial excusing blind eyes that ignore consequences obvious to anyone paying attention:
Just as people celebrate the 1950s as a time of complacency and conformity, as change and ferment evident in the following decade coalesced — commencing with the sit-ins in February 1960 and the Freedom Rides in May 1961, circumstances signaling outrage and disbelief are conspicuous contemporaneously.
Social issues did not elect the incoming President but instead discontent over indifference to economic justice, and it will not be social issues that elect the next President but instead discontent over indifference to economic justice. Billionaires and plutocrats thinking that the best years lie ahead perhaps have their comeuppance as readily as George Amberson Minafer in “The Magnificent Ambersons” (1942): “He got it three times filled, and running over.”
Tom Lehrer, introducing his song “National Brotherhood Week,” observed,
“One week of every year is designated National Brotherhood Week….
“During National Brotherhood Week various special events are arranged to drive home the message of brotherhood — this year, for example, on the first day of the week, Malcolm X was killed, which gives you an idea of how effective the whole thing is.”
Four weeks after Election Day, UnitedHealthcare’s CEO was gunned down outside the New York Hilton, “by a gun that didn’t make any noise” — “from the profit he’s made on your dreams” that policyholders enjoy insurance coverage, after premiums are paid, when denying benefits provides return on shareholder investment: “Delay, Deny, Defend,” a 2010 book, delineates health insurance company’s procedures for dismissing patient claims.
Enthusiasm abounds for the murder of Brian Thompson: jubilation as odious as Murrah High School students in Jackson cheering after learning of President John Kennedy’s assassination. Only depraved individuals fail to fathom that, whatever one’s inner thoughts, one does not openly delight in the loss of human life. “Have you no sense of decency?”
A December 7th article in The New York Times — “Some on Social Media See Suspect in C.E.O. Killing as a Folk Hero” — stated that,
“Alex Goldenberg, a senior adviser at the Network Contagion Research Institute, which tracks online threats, said the internet rhetoric had left experts ‘pretty disturbed’ by the glorification of the murder of Brian Thompson and the ‘lionization of the shooter.’…
“‘It’s being framed as some opening blow in a broader class war, which is very concerning as it heightens the threat environment for similar actors to engage in similar acts of violence,’….”
I have no tolerance for vigilante justice or gun violence. Yet I understand outrage over an economic system excessively prioritizing profits over people. The dynamic cannot continue indefinitely. Insubstantial inequities are sustainable, but inexplicable iniquity is unsustainable.
I made a claim on my homeowners insurance policy for the first time, earlier this year. Anticipated coverage was nonexistent.
The insurer acted as if its only obligation is to collect premiums. Routine review of what is covered and what is excluded appears to be an imposition. Annual appraisal clarifying whether additional coverage was needed went wanting.
I comprehend why a lunatic inclined to vigilante justice and gun violence committed murder in cold blood “by a gun that didn’t make any noise” notwithstanding the fact that I cannot condone it.
Unless unfortunate circumstances ameliorate, an era said to signal a renaissance of laissez faire government might produce greater regulation and scrutiny.
Jay Wiener is a Northsider
