The performance of morality in immoral times

We live in strange times—a time when the most wicked and vile people not only thrive and prosper but are looked up to as paragons of virtue. A world where so many crave the craven but at the same time try to justify their incessant hunger for immorality under a cloak of flimsy and questionable morality.

Christian support for Trump has long been a sign that we are living in upside-down times, Trump is not a godly man or a good man. Even accepting that all humans are flawed and given to brokenness, he is a man who thrives on chaos and depravity, while maximizing harm. Yet too many of my Christian brothers and sisters decided that they like Trump’s version of morality instead of their perceptions of immorality. A “morality” that denies the humanity of LGBTQ people, immigrants, and those they deem “other.” A “morality” that has decided that straight, cis-gendered, white (or white-adjacent) people are the only just, true, righteous, and deserving-of-grace group.

It’s nasty work.

Maybe I would have kept those thoughts just in my head today, but the story of Brian Thompson—the CEO of United Healthcare who was brazenly gunned down in New York City as he was heading into his company’s annual shareholder meeting—isn’t simply a story of crime and an untimely death. Thompson was a husband and father and no doubt loved by his people, but he also was the CEO of a company ranked number four on the Fortune 500 list. A health insurance giant with a reported revenue of $324 billion. A company that made its fortune by keeping costs down by denying care to as many people as possible. In a country where health insurance is often inhumane and immoral in its decision-making, United Healthcare held a special place in terms of denying care. That meant misery, stress, harm—even death—to their customers, all just to add value for the shareholders and profit the executives of the company.

See, United Healthcare is a health insurance company that is notorious for rejecting claims. In fact, compared to their peers, they have the highest rejection rates around. In case you are somehow not versed in the mechanics of American healthcare, it means that when you need a procedure or a medication or something that your actual doctor says is needed for your health, well—if United Healthcare is your insurance provider, one of out three times, they are saying no.

Mind you, people pay for their insurance to be able to use it when they need it. But what they get is anonymous people in suits who don’t know them and don’t know anything about medicine deciding whether they will get their needs met. People who decide the cost-benefit analysis and play the odds with actual human lives.

Healthcare in America is a profit-driven business because too many Americans can’t imagine using our collective tax dollars for our collective care and well-being, unlike almost all other developed countries. So, we get the short end of the stick and either die early or go bankrupt while the people who oversee these schemes are handsomely rewarded for doing their job well. And in America, too many people accept the absurdity of it all and even look up to these robber barons.

Last year, Brian Thompson earned around $10.2 million. That included his salary, bonus and stock options. Just for one year. I suspect ole Brian didn’t have to worry about his health insurance. Meanwhile, what did you earn and could you even go to the doctor regularly much less get procedures done?

As you can see, we have a large problem with economic inequality in this country. One that more and more people are starting to pay attention to as take-home pay doesn’t keep up with real-time expenses. It hasn’t for decades, to be honest, but it’s getting worse and more noticeable.

We are in a country where, if you are fortunate enough to have health insurance, you still might not be able to use it when you need it. And while the ACA, aka Obamacare, means you can at least get annual preventative care covered, what does that matter if there is a problem and you cannot afford to address it and your coverage won’t cover it?

Hell, this spring, I had to get a CT scan in preparation for abdominal surgery, since the surgeon needed to assess things before she cuts me open and works her magic. Imagine my surprise after going through the appropriate channels of getting approval for the procedure to be sent an almost $2,000 bill. Of course, I didn’t have $2,000 to pay that bill upfront, so now I am on a $78-a-month payment plan. It made me wonder, what exactly does my more than $1,200-a-month premium cover?

Of course, stories like mine are a dime a dozen. Who doesn’t have one of these stories?

Which is why when the CEO of a major healthcare company is gunned down in broad daylight, people pay attention, and they all have thoughts—and social media allows us to share those thoughts.

As of this writing the gunman hasn’t been caught and while we don’t know the motive, surveillance footage does seem to suggest that this was not a random shooting in a major city. Especially with ammunition casings emblazoned with the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” found at the crime scene.

Imaginations are running wild as people speculate was this a “John Q”-style situation? Was this someone who lost a loved one due to United Healthcare’s policies? For a country that rarely can come together around anything, many people are equally dispassionate over Thompson’s death. Many are making comments about “their sympathy being out of network” and “sending thoughts and denial of coverage” and the like. Many are bothered that people are not feeling sad about the killing, though if online comments I see are any indication, they’re in the minority at least slightly.

In moral times, a broad-daylight murder like this might be a tragedy, but as our country descends deeper into immorality, there is a point that we must realize that we all have choices, and how we live is not separate from who we are and our values. The uncomfortable fact is this company maximizes profits by acting in inhumane ways that deny people care. The industry itself is inhumane. If you choose to lead such an operation, at what point is it a reflection of your own values?

In the United States, because of our collective worship of wealth, we often look the other way at one’s choices and actions but as times get harder, I suspect we will see less of that. People say it’s not right to condone violence in U.S. culture but that is an ahistorical opinion in this country that was founded on violence. Stealing the land of the actual inhabitants and then stealing people from somewhere else and forcing them for generations to work for you is some violent shit.

We accept violence every day when we choose to ignore the suffering of others and don’t do our part to stop it, whether directly or indirectly. The violent structure of our system forces us to participate in this violence—those deals we get when shopping are often the result of violence inflicted upon others that society has deemed as “less-than.” Our homes that are situated in non-walkable spaces that require us to drive everywhere inflict violence upon the earth, same as all those low-cost flights we take everywhere. Our fun is carried on the backs of someone else’s violence. The jobs that many of us must work too often uphold the violent system and maybe if we are lucky, we are compensated well enough to ignore it and seek morality in some other areas of our lives. For most of us, we will never have access to the power needed to truly dismantle violent systems and create a truly different way. Not even in my work that still requires someone to underwrite the good work we do.

To say that we cannot condone individual violence is to be both hypocritical and complicit, when we could acknowledge that the system demands our hypocrisy and complicity and breaking free of that is often above our paygrade.

The thing is, if you are one of the people who has access to power and can make change, but choose not to, what does that say about you? What if our most powerful and wealthy people chose to use their wealth for the greater good? What if Elon Musk used his immense wealth and influence to stop hunger and get people housed? The man would still have more than enough to live extravagantly on even afterward. What if the Brian Thompsons of the world decided that earning a million dollars a year was enough and forced his shareholders to sacrifice some of their wealth? These people would still earn way more than the average American and people would be able to access the care they need.

In a morally just world, one person taking the life of another would be awful but in this case, it’s a muddy shade of gray especially as the oligarchs gather to take more of our meager existence away from us. Only time will tell who the gunman is and what his motivations were, but humans do reach their breaking points.

Personally, I can’t say that I would have chosen this fella’s course of actions, but I have lived long enough to understand that life is rarely black and white. In a world where hard work doesn’t necessarily equate to success or even having enough to put food on the table or a roof over one’s head, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more people taking extreme actions in the coming weeks and months.

But before judging another for their so-called immoral actions, I will make sure that I am aware of what violence and harm I perpetuate upon others and what’s a free-will choice vs. what is a societal choice foisted upon me in the name of survival.

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