Shooting CEOs

As a famous author and pundit of The Left, I'm required to weigh in on the murder/ heroic act of retribution of the Insurance exec last week. Depending on if you are a morally outraged believer in law and order or a wanna be revolutionary, you can see the shooting as an act of dangerous anarchy or liberatory revenge. The basic justice warrior take is that CEOs who profit from immiseration and death and make immoral choices,and, well, what comes around goes around. At my book group last night the point was made that having these CEO's watching their backs wasn't a bad thing. Fine. But it isn't the revolution. Until there is a mass movement, any type of radical flank, much less lone wolf action will go nowhere and have no effect. If one goes down, a new CEO is waiting in the wings. The same argument can be made about the Palestinian attack of Oct.7. Hard to justify on moral or tactical grounds. Things haven't exactally improved for the Palestinian people or the movement for liberation. There is a long history of this kind of political murder but it is telling that the suspect was reading old Ted Kaczynski. Look at the revolution he fomented. Don't like your healthcare? You can always rage against the machine! You can denounce the system! Then order something on Amazon. Or go get a Starbucks coffee. But until you can define "the machine" or "the system" you are fighting a ghost, an abstraction and emotion. Until you see how the CEO you hate is related to Capital, your hate will remain displaced. And you can't shoot Capital.