Apparently, there is some confusion over the politics of Luigi Mangione, the alleged assassin of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. This is largely because his politics do not seem to align with the approved framework for today’s arrangement of power. They are messy. Because we live in messy times. Confused times. But this isn’t as bizarre or problematic as some would make it out to be. And anyone who has been traumatized is a victim of these messy, confusing times.

The reality is that he fits the archetype of hero. Not in a romanticized or sentimental way. Not in the Hollywood manner which infantilizes the very concept of hero with cheap nationalistic tropes, hyper-masculine numbness, or superhuman capabilities. He is a hero because, like all heroes, his life was scarred by trauma and unfathomable pain. Like all heroes, he has stepped out the shadows of deep, systemic injustice in our times to make a stand, however flawed, against this injustice. Like all heroes, he is misunderstood, maligned and demonized by the rich and powerful and celebrated by the oppressed, the lower caste, the underdog. He represents the latter’s disappointment and rage, and he channeled that rage into action, albeit misguided.

You don’t have to understand or agree with all of his political opinions to understand that he emerged from the pathos of an age where a group of wealthy businessmen have arisen to extract extraordinary wealth from the denial of medical assistance to millions of sick or injured people. An age of sheer barbarity, where life saving or pain-alleviating treatments and medications are only available to those who have the ability to pay exorbitant fees. An age where a small class of people, propelled by avarice and cupidity, enjoy pampered and untroubled lives of luxury via the siphoning of wealth from the vast working class who suffer daily indignities at their hand.

The assassination of Brian Thompson made clear that if you’re poor and murdered there’ll likely be no manhunt mounted for your killer or any blanket media coverage of the incident that could ever compare with what we’ve seen this past week. This one fact alone highlights the vast inequities within American society. It goes beyond healthcare. The justice system, the media, the whole system is unequal, unfair and staggeringly cruel. Far more cruel than any action allegedly taken by Luigi Mangione.

Heroes don’t always save people’s physical lives. In fact, they seldom do. Heroes save our humanity by showing the wealthy and the powerful that our lives have meaning, that we are enraged by the inequality, cruelty and injustice that they profit from, and that we are not going silently into the night as they would have us do.

Kenn Orphan, December 2024

*Photo is of alleged shooter, Luigi Nicholas Mangione.