Murder Is Still Not Okay: Murdering Bad People Isn't Either
What Luigi Mangione has taught us about our moral imperatives
It doesn’t matter whether he deserved it or not. That’s beside the point. On Wednesday, December 4, Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was shot dead in broad daylight in the middle of Midtown Manhattan. Somehow, the country is divided on how to react to this heinous act.
Based on what I’ve read, most people are divided into two camps. The “loving father” camp focuses on the tragedy of the cold blooded murder of a loving husband and father of two. The “mass murderer” camp focuses on UnitedHealthcare’s massive profits under Thompson’s leadership in part due to their high rate of denial, which cost many thousands their lives. The mass murderer side is downright gleeful at Thompson’s killing, arguing he got his just desserts for his greed that caused so much suffering and death. The loving father side mourns for his kids and asks whether the CEO can be held singularly responsible for the corporate greed that is so emblematic of the American healthcare system.
Both sides miss the crux of the issue that provides us with the moral clarity we so desperately need. Thompson’s murder was unambiguously wrong, but not because he was a father of two or because he didn’t deserve it. None of this matters. Murder is malum in se—an inherently immoral act, as opposed to malum prohibitum—an act that is prohibited by statute but may not have a dimension of immorality. This is not a technical point. The immorality of murder does not depend on whether the victim deserves to die. Murder is wrong because the life of the victim is not the murderer’s to take. This is the foundation upon which society is built. Let us examine how things play out when we celebrate the murder of people responsible for the deaths of many others.
Thompson was responsible for many people’s deaths, some argue, and therefore had it coming. What about former president George W. Bush who was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis due to the false claim of Saddam Hussein’s WMDs? Depending on your political persuasion, you may be okay with someone shooting him in broad daylight because he had it coming. Yet, one could easily make an argument for gunning down President Biden due to the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan that not only caused the death of 13 American soldiers but also resulted in 170 Afghan civilians deaths and the millions of women being oppressed, raped, and killed since then.
The criminal justice system is responsible for countless wrongful imprisonments resulting in shattered families and people being beaten, raped, and killed in prison. Should we support the wanton killing of police officers, prosecutors, and prison guards?
Let’s not stop there. One could make the same argument for any defense attorney who successfully defended criminals who wound up on the street and murdered others. Some of those attorneys knew their clients were murderers and defended them anyway. Shall we celebrate their being shot in the streets?
It is not hard to see how this line of reasoning results in open season on everyone. People can lie to themselves and convince themselves only a select few will have their lives judged as worthy of being taken. But this is only because we are so convinced of our righteousness and refuse to reflect. Nowhere is this more true than the abortion debate, where pro-lifers accuse pro-choicers of supporting the murders of millions of unborn babies and pro-choicers accuse pro-lifers of supporting the deaths of women who desperately need abortions. Since most people support one of these positions to one degree or another, everyone can be condemned to death by the other side. With a single issue, we are all dead people walking.
There is only one way back to sanity and civilization. We must agree that killing someone is only okay under very limited circumstances, such as self-defense (Luigi Mangione did not kill Brian Thompson in self-defense—it appears he wasn’t even insured by UnitedHealthcare).
The truth is none of us has the right to fill the roles of judge, jury, and executioner to our fellow citizens. It is above our paygrades anyway. What we need to focus on is our moral imperatives. With Thompson’s killing, we just came face to face with the most basic one of all. The lives of others are not ours to take. There is nothing else to it.