I want to make this very clear: I do not ever intend or want—I have no desire—to take away from people the catharsis they are experiencing from the shooting of the CEO. I understand the catharsis. I appreciate it. I get why people are feeling it, and I am not trying to dismiss it.
I bring it up only to highlight something that I find concerning about this catharsis.
To me, it highlights the sheer powerlessness that capitalism inflicts upon people. When I think about it, I feel like I have such an insignificant level of power and influence within our current system. Within capitalism, the shooting of the CEO—while ultimately, in my opinion, a self-defeating act if your goal is systemic change—changes nothing about the system that allowed the CEO to exist and do what they did.
But people have so little power against that system that, of course, when you have no power, you take what you can get. Even if that is the ability to live vicariously through the actions of another—especially actions like shooting the CEO and thinking, “Yeah, take that, capitalism!” In that moment, you feel empowered. You take catharsis in it, even though it accomplishes virtually nothing.
And yet, it tastes so good. In a world where you have no other ability to effect that kind of change, you personalize it. You think, “Man, I wish I could do that. I wish I could just shoot Jeff Bezos,” and in doing so, you experience a fleeting sense of power—the kind that capitalism robs from you every day.
So yes, I understand why people are celebrating this. I understand the catharsis they feel, and I’m not dismissing it. But I also think it’s important to recognize that while this catharsis is valid, the action itself is misdirected.
Because here’s the reality: United Healthcare still exists. It is still doing what it did yesterday, and it will continue to do what it does tomorrow. Yes, their CEO is dead, but they’ll appoint a new one, and nothing will fundamentally change. The company will continue to operate as it did under Brian Thompson. It will continue to deny claims at an alarming rate. It will continue to use an AI that, reportedly, is 90% wrong in its decisions.
United Healthcare will continue to do these things because capitalism rewards them for it. And United Healthcare is not unique. There are hundreds of other companies doing the exact same thing. This is a systemic problem. The system—the framework that enables and rewards this behavior—needs to be changed.
I’m sorry, but you can kill every CEO in existence today, and it won’t change the system. As long as the system prevails, the companies operating within it will continue. They’ll hire new CEOs, and the cycle will go on.
If you want real change, you have to destroy the system that enables it. The framework that rewards companies for operating reprehensibly has to be burned down. Capitalism itself—the unchecked, aggressive acquisition of wealth—is the problem. That is what needs to be targeted.
You’re not going to accomplish that by killing a CEO. On Thursday, December 5th, you will wake up to a world where a CEO is dead, and the horrors of capitalism still persist.
So, yes, enjoy the catharsis. Feel it. Allow yourself to experience that fleeting sense of power. It’s important.
But always keep in the back of your mind who the real enemy is.
The enemy is not people. The enemy is the system.