Peter Turchin argued that complex societies go through cycles of stability and instability, referring to the key points from his book End Times: Elites, counter-elites and the path of political disintegration. The phases of instability (or ‘disintegration’) are characterised by the following dynamics, which can be observed in many global societies throughout history through the emerging science of ‘cliodynamics’:
- Elite overproduction:
The wealth pump: This mechanism transfers wealth from the poor to the rich.
Mass immiseration: The operation of the wealth pump over a prolonged period results in the declining wellbeing of the majority of the population.
The assassination of United Health Care executive Brian Thompson has some not-insignificant aggregation of the American public musing that Thompson reaped what he had sown. Without the assassin revealing his motive for the shooting, no motive is attributed here. But there is enough in the public domain regarding insurance companies and insurance claim denial rates by individual companies to organize a political argument around what may have motivated the shooter.
From this dark celebration, a sense is emerging that the assassin was addressing the problems of the age that the American political system is incapable of addressing. American elections operate under the fallacy that the results reflect the will of the people. Ideologues and paid pleaders even attribute ideological motives to the corrupt opportunists who ascend in the American form of political economy. And every story of imminent redemption is soon revealed to be just one more step in the process of imperial decline.
And an observation now that Luigi Mangione has been charged in Thompson’s murder, and due to his family wealth, seems able to hire the caliber of lawyers that can defend him well: his case is very unlikely to go to trial. The last thing the government and people in power want is a potentially messy trial. They will try hard to get him to cop a plea. And if the pain from his not-very-successful back surgery is ongoing, you can be sure it will be made difficult for him to get his meds to make him more cooperative.
Another case of-“Move along people. Nothing to see here. Business as usual.”