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The fatal shooting of Brian Thompson, the CEO of America’s largest health insurer, in Manhattan last week sent chills through US boardrooms. The suspect charged with the UnitedHealthcare executive’s murder on Monday was found with a handwritten manifesto outlining “some ill will towards corporate America”, according to officials. After an election campaign marred by two assassination attempts on Donald Trump, the killing marks yet another example of how individuals are acting out their frustrations through violence, this time against a business figure.
上週，美國最大醫療保險公司首席執行長布萊恩•湯普森(Brian Thompson)在曼哈頓遭槍擊身亡，這讓美國的董事會感到不寒而慄。據美國官員稱，週一被指控謀殺聯合健康(UnitedHealthcare)高階主管的嫌疑人被發現手寫了一份宣言，其中概述了「對美國公司的一些恨意」。在唐納•川普(Donald Trump)遭遇兩次未遂暗殺之後，這起謀殺案再次表明，一些個人正在透過暴力來發洩他們的不滿情緒，而這一次的目標是商界人士。
Physical attacks on senior executives are, thankfully, rare. Discontent with a multitude of social ills in America — one of the advanced world’s most unequal societies — has, however, long made companies, as well as politicians, a target for anger. Though this is usually voiced peacefully, activism both on the left and the right has increasingly been turning violent. By some measures, US political violence is at its highest in several decades. The nation’s polarised and toxic discourse, sometimes fuelled by social media, is partly to blame.
值得慶幸的是，對高級管理人員的人身攻擊並不多見。然而，美國是發達世界最不平等的社會之一，對美國衆多社會弊病的不滿長期以來一直使公司和政客成爲發泄憤怒的目標。儘管這種憤怒通常以和平方式表達，但左翼和右翼的激進主義正越來越多地轉向暴力。根據某些標準，美國的政治暴力已達到數十年來的最高水準。這個國家的兩極化和有毒言論——有時被社群媒體推波助瀾——是部分原因。
Thompson’s murder lays bare the extent of anger towards the US healthcare system in particular. Many complain of difficulties in obtaining affordable insurance coverage and being denied certain treatments. In July, about 100 people gathered outside UnitedHealthcare’s headquarters in part to protest against the way the company reviews treatments before it agrees to pay for them. The words “deny”, “defend”, and “depose” were discovered on the bullet casings at the scene of Thompson’s killing, an apparent reference to criticisms of insurance companies’ tactics.
湯普森謀殺案尤其暴露了對美國醫保系統的憤怒程度。許多人抱怨難以獲得負擔得起的保險保障，某些治療也遭到拒絕。今年7月，約100人聚集在聯合健康總部外，部分是爲了抗議該公司在同意支付費用之前對治療進行審查的方式。在湯普森遇害現場的彈殼上發現了「拒絕」、「辯護」和「免職」等字樣，顯然是指對保險公司策略的批評。
However deep-rooted the frustrations may be, nothing justifies resorting to violence, or indeed condoning it. Sadly, a sizeable minority thinks otherwise. One in five Americans believe that violence is a solution to domestic political divisions. Indeed, the cold reaction to Thompson’s murder on social media is troubling. The suspect’s X account has experienced a surge in followers, with some commenters describing him as a “king” and demanded that police “free him”. Videos have surfaced of people dressing like the alleged killer.
無論挫敗感多麼根深蒂固，都不能成爲訴諸暴力或寬恕暴力的理由。可悲的是，相當一部分人卻不這麼認爲。五分之一的美國人認爲暴力是國內政治分歧的一種解決方式。事實上，社群媒體上對湯普森被謀殺的冷漠反應令人不安。嫌疑人的X賬戶粉絲激增，一些評論者稱他爲「王」，並要求警方「釋放他」。網上已經出現了一些人模仿這名嫌疑人裝扮的影片。
This normalisation of violence means major companies cannot afford to be complacent about executive security. The proportion of big US companies providing security for at least one top executive has risen slightly in recent years to above one in four. Many executives of technology and oil companies — which have often come in for public criticism — do have personal security and surveillance available for their family. Meta spent $23mn on security for Mark Zuckerberg last year. That Thompson did not have any security detail when he was gunned down during rush hour should raise questions. His widow says he had faced threats before.
暴力的常態化意味著大公司不能對高階主管的安全掉以輕心。近年來，爲至少一名高層管理人員提供安保服務的美國大公司比例略有上升，已超過四分之一。許多科技和石油公司的高階主管——這些公司經常受到公衆批評——確實爲其家庭提供個人安保和監控服務。Meta去年在馬克•祖克柏(Mark Zuckerberg)的安全上花費了2300萬美元。湯普森在高峯時段被槍殺時沒有任何安全保護，這應該引發質疑。他的遺孀稱他之前曾被威脅過。
For better or worse, demands on CEOs have risen over time. Expectations now extend from delivering returns for shareholders to navigating the social, political and environmental implications of their business. This has come alongside a push for executives to be the even more visible faces of their companies, just as social media has made business leaders more accessible to the public.
無論好壞，隨著時間的推移，對首席執行長的要求也在不斷提高。現在，對首席執行長的期望已從爲股東帶來回報擴展到化解公司的社會、政治和環境影響。與此同時，社群媒體讓公衆更容易接觸到商界領袖，這也促使高階主管成爲公司更引人注目的代言人。
Executives are of course well rewarded for handling these pressures. But, in America’s gun-wielding society, it was perhaps only a matter of time before the coarsening public discourse turned lingering anger towards an industry and the executive class into a violent vigilante act. That US companies are now scrambling to assess if top employees have sufficient security is a sad but necessary sign of the times.
當然，高階主管們也會因爲應對這些壓力而獲得豐厚的回報。但是，在美國這個槍枝氾濫的社會里，日益粗暴的公衆言論遲早會把對一個行業和高階主管層的持續憤怒轉化爲暴力私刑。美國公司現在正爭先恐後地評估高階主管是否有足夠的安全保障，這是一個可悲但必要的時代標誌。