Peut-être madame la guillotine?

‘deny,’ ‘defend’ and ‘depose’

Exécution_de_Marie_Antoinette_le_16_octobre_1793

What fascinates me in the wake of the execution of Brian Thompson, the CEO of American healthcare insurance company UnitedHealthcare, is the stream of comments that begin with “Of course it’s always wrong to kill someone,” but carry on to “…yet…”

The number of Americans who feel that they’ve been cheated by their health insurance providers is staggering. From a Canadian perspective, and mindful of the ongoing attempts to privatize our healthcare as well, it still horrifies me to read a comment like:

‘Next year we (2 people) will pay $12,461.28 for health "insurance," and this amount means my insurer will pay for the bare legal minimum of preventive care; anything else we need we will pay out of pocket, until I have paid an additional $8000 for me or $16,000 for the family.

Or this one:

A certain healthcare corporation who needs a new chief executive today once laid my dad off at 39.5 years of service so he wouldn’t be entitled to the 40 year pension. His team raised money themselves to give him a watch with “39.5 Years” engraved on it. I think about that watch A LOT.

What I remember from living in France, and what I think that a lot of very, very rich American oligarchs should try to understand, was the sense that every elected official, every leader of that country, still has in the back of their minds a vivid image of the tool that was used by the people at the bottom of the ladder to overthrow the ruling classes who oppressed them.

And although I can’t see most Americans shouting “off with their heads!”, I think that the wealthy and privileged should be very aware that the US has more guns per capita than any place on earth.

I do think that the US is heading towards another civil war, and I do think that it will be violent. I am just hoping that Canada will find some political leaders that will keep us out of it, and keep those inflamed passions off of our streets.

The first step, for sure, is to remember that people who have a comfortable home, and enough to eat, and health care, and education for their kids, are not the people who rise up to overthrow a government.

It is the desperate people - the people who have re-elected Donald Trump - that pose a threat to the status quo.

And that is why, despite the occasional popularity of groups like the Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National, the government of France still makes sure that the people who live there have reasonably comfortable lives.

It is no coincidence that the national anthem of France is both very bloody, and very focussed on warning the rich and powerful of their coming doom. And that every French school child learns to sing this with pride.

And, thirty-five years later, can you recall ever seeing any Canadian politician, during Oh Canada, show the emotion and pride displayed by Emmanuel Macron during this rendition during the Paris 2024 Olympics?

These are frightening times, for sure, but what keeps me going is the belief that ultimately we, the ordinary people, can rise up and conquer those who oppress us.