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Coordination Failure and Ideological Crime:
The Luigi Mangione case as a catalyst for change
Luigi Mangione’s ideologically driven crime — the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson — has sparked a profound conversation about the moral and societal implications of such acts. Rooted in his frustration with a healthcare system he deemed exploitative, Mangione’s manifesto criticized the prioritization of profit over human welfare. Though his act of violence is indefensible, it was intended as a radical means to expose systemic failures and provoke societal reflection. In its essence, Mangione’s story parallels Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and its protagonist, Raskolnikov. Both grapple with the idea of whether ideological crimes can serve higher purposes or merely perpetuate cycles of harm.
However, Mangione’s actions diverge from Raskolnikov’s in a significant way. While Raskolnikov’s crime is deeply personal, stemming from an internal need to prove his own moral exceptionalism, Mangione’s crime was a public challenge to structural inequality and centralization of power. By comparing the two, we gain a deeper understanding of the moral complexities of ideological crime and its potential to spark collective change.
