The aftermath of the shocking killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO – and the "cheering reaction" it triggered – offers a stark warning to a society already desensitized to bloodshed, according to an editorial published Wednesday.
And the brazenness of the gleeful response from frustrated insurance customers nationwide is worrying to people who study violence closely, wrote Adrienne LeFrance, who added in her Atlantic editorial that last week’s assassination of Brian Thompson could lead down a path of "decivilization."
“The line between a normal, functioning society and catastrophic decivilization can be crossed with a single act of mayhem,” LeFrance warned readers on Wednesday. She pointed out that the conditions that made a society susceptible to violence include “highly visible wealth disparity, declining trust in democratic institutions, a heightened sense of victimhood, [and] intense partisan estrangement.”
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One way to understand which direction a society is heading – "toward or away from chaos" – is to measure "its emotional undercurrents, and its attitude toward violence broadly," LeFrance wrote.
"Often, when people choose violence, it is because they believe that it is the only path, a last resort in a time of desperation – and they believe that they’ll get away with it," she told readers. "Over the centuries, humanity has become more civilized, largely drifting away from violent conflict resolution."
But, the executive editor warned, while bloodshed is not new to America, we are presently in "a distinctly precarious time."
"In other societies that have fallen apart, violence acts as a catalyst, exacerbating all of the conditions that led to it in the first place," LeFrance wrote.
She added that one way to avoid this outcome "is to force change only through processes that do not lead to bloodshed, and to unequivocally reject anyone — whether that person is sitting in the White House or standing in the street — who would choose or justify violence against the people."