This an artwork made by a local here in the Northern Rivers which was posted on Facebook last week. If you don't recognise him, (which I didn't at first) it's the guy who murdered the United HealthCare executive by shooting him in the back last month in New York.
I know this local person through Facebook and Instagram only. She is not a 'real friend' but a digital one yet she did write me a DM once, a very kind note complimenting me on the work that I post on both sites. I was familiar with her site which exhibited a clever but humanist vibe, though with a slightly harsh take on men. But I can handle that because men, well, can be truly awful at times.
She wrote me that my work 'cheered her up' so naturally I imagined she was a thoughtful and caring human being. But when I saw this portrait she had made of this murderer I was not only surprised but also disappointed that a woman whom I had always understood to preach the practice of empathy and kindness on her site, would somehow stoop to the glorification of this murder of a man walking to work in the early morning.
Yes, I know, I know, the internet has lit up with support for this (alleged) killer, he is popular with women, along with a Go-Fund-Me page and expressions of lust and love for him. But like what we saw on January 6th, it was all recorded on video for the world to see. There is no disputing this act of a cold-blooded murder. (On a side note, if he had been a fat, small and balding guy, would anyone have been made 'Hay' over all this?)
I live in The Northern Rivers near Byron Bay. It's a chronically hip New Age kind of place where everyone does yoga and regularly attends chanting and meditation retreats, etc,,, etc,,, It's a 'special place' like so many other hot yoga spots around the world where people actively advertise their higher state of consciousness.
So, I ask; what has happened to us that 'kind' and otherwise 'thoughtful' people exalt the murder of an insurance executive half-way around the world because we deem him unworthy to live?
Where is the empathy, compassion, and concern for this guy's family? Sure, he may have been the bean-counting CEO of a deceitful company that routinely screws Americans through the denial of benefits and services that effectively send their sick clients to the morgue via a slow death. It's company whose reputation routinely makes life miserable for millions of ordinary Americans.
But, if any executive of any company can be executed in broad daylight to the delight of millions, where does it end? Why stop there? Why not kill everyone everywhere who we suspect are linked up with malffeasance? If we did, lots and lots of people around the world would die meaningless and shameful deaths. And for what? Who gives some of us the right to kill others who some believe deserve to die? Are we moving back to the 9th century by choice or ignorance?
What I find really upsetting is that all of the supporting comments on the subsequent post threads that fully support the murder like it's an extension of the film series 'The Purge' on Netflix. This tells me that many in the community find murder, as a solution, to be completely acceptable in selective cases. Whew... Apparently, lots of people in America also do too because now we've all been freed from any measured or moral restraint. Good people are being displaced by internet trolls, it's the wave of the future.
Not wanting to get into a food fight online, I didn't comment on the thread. I thought hard about it but I realised I'm not interested in provoking trolls, or attempting to change their opinions on a Facebook or Instagram thread. Silence is my choice of operation both in life or online. So, I simply unfollowed her because I'm not here on earth to change anyone's mind. Sadly, The Northern Rivers community is apparently just like everywhere else now. Trolls and conspiracists push the boundaries of what 'polite society' could hitherto bear. Apparently, people now don't practice what they pretend to live out in their own daily lives. That is a great shame.
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