Recently, I came across some comments talking about the shooter who killed the United Healthcare CEO, who many online referred to as "the claims adjuster." Note that at this time, a young man who's family is fairly wealthy has been arrested and charged with the crime, but has not been convicted. That being said, a lot of people have been referring to him as "an entitled white kid" who "thought his feelings and problems were more important than anyone else's." I've seen this followed with a line that I found particularly damning: "He is not noble."
Most people that are hailed as noble throughout history were anything but; nobility is largely a trait granted by those who never met the person, often those who were born long after the person died.
We consider Winston Churchill noble, yet he sacrificed an entire city to protect his advantage in the war. We consider Theodore Roosevelt noble, yet he orchestrated the US control over the Americas that has led to so much death and destruction since (which incidentally led to the issues we have with immigration). We consider George Washington noble, but the man was a genocidal maniac as a military leader, seeking to slaughter men, women, and children among the indigenous peoples of North America. We consider Julius Caesar noble, a mass murdering narcissist who twisted the calendar so that he and his son could have months named after them during the middle of the year.
Every "noble" person is a myth, as nobility is a myth. History doesn't count the noble, it does not even count the heroes, it doesn't even really count the winners. It counts who's left after the smoke clears, and often those who inspire or cause change, regardless of whether their intentions were noble or not, are the ones we view as heroes in the end.
The entitled white kid in this case sacrificed everything he had to do what he did. All of his inheritance relied on him keeping a clean criminal record, yet he performed an act and kept evidence on his person that would ensure a felony conviction. Near as we can tell, he developed the plan, constructed the weapon, did all the research, and so much more all on his own because he wanted some kind of justice for what was done to him and literally millions like him. His stated reasoning was literally that the rich had taken too much, and they needed to pay, an intention that was shared by those we consider most noble in history, including Jesus of Nazareth who also committed acts of violence in the name of that intention.
Is he noble? No, of course not. No one is. Nobility is literally just a myth perpetrated by archaic aristocracies to justify harming the poor. Is he moral? Depends on the system of ethics you're looking though, but for a person of privilege to sacrifice everything that granted him that privilege, to embrace the ruin of his life and likely to spend life incarcerated in order to spur on working class Americans toward class consciousness, which was pretty clearly stated in his "manifesto," it seems less ignoble than, for instance, leading a violent revolution that cost approximately 23,800 lives of those the revolutionaries were claiming to fight on behalf of (just under 1% of the total population of the colonies at the time) because of a tax on tea and then turning around and reinstituting slavery which condemned 15+ million people to fates most would consider worse than death.
The purpose wasn't to avoid dealing with insurance nor was it to express pain, but that's the story corporate and political media will continue to tell. Just like they will continue to tell you that it's perfectly justified that a 42 year old woman poorly expressing frustration in the same way thousands do with insurance agents every day to be thrown in prison as a felon.
I wonder who's bidding one is doing when they focus not on the intent, the message, the outcome, or the possible effects of an act of political violence but rather on vilifying the perpetrator to the point of drowning out all the rest. Is it the bidding of the working class, or the ruling class? Does it help those in need, or those who have so much that they're now afraid that people are aware of how much more they have than they could possible want, need, or use in dozens of lifetimes? And is it noble to do the work of the oppressors as one of the oppressed?
I wanted to add a sarcastic ending here, something to the effect of "but that's all just useless philosophy, right?" but I think it's more important to be frank: if you're primary method of judging the nobility, morality, etc. of someone's actions is to listen to your economic superiors who control the media, you're not thinking for yourself. And if you consider a person's entire ethical worth to be able to be distilled into how the media treats them based on an action they took, you need to work harder to understanding your fellow human.
I was trained to kill, and I hope I never have to use that training. I understand that killing is often unnecessary and therefore wrong, but it is also sometimes the best choice out of a myriad of other horrible options. I cannot say I support the killing of a CEO, but I can say I do not support the wealth gap that has grown so severe that some people have more liquid assets than they could possibly spend in several lifetimes while others die of starvation and exposure mere miles from where the rich live. I don't have a good fix for that other than the rich voluntarily giving up vast amounts of their wealth and resources to fix the system so that everyone can thrive, or as one man once said to the rich, "Sell all you have, and give to the poor." I would prefer that, to be honest. I'd gladly give everything I have for that.
God Bless if you'll let Him, and have an otherwise nice day.
No comments:
Post a Comment