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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.
上周，美国最大医疗保险公司首席执行官布莱恩•汤普森(Brian Thompson)在曼哈顿遭枪击身亡，这让美国的董事会感到不寒而栗。据美国官员称，周一被指控谋杀联合健康(UnitedHealthcare)高管的嫌疑人被发现手写了一份宣言，其中概述了“对美国公司的一些恨意”。在唐纳德•特朗普(Donald Trump)遭遇两次未遂暗杀之后，这起谋杀案再次表明，一些个人正在通过暴力来发泄他们的不满情绪，而这一次的目标是商界人士。
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.
值得庆幸的是，对高级管理人员的人身攻击并不多见。然而，美国是发达世界最不平等的社会之一，对美国众多社会弊病的不满长期以来一直使公司和政客成为发泄愤怒的目标。尽管这种愤怒通常以和平方式表达，但左翼和右翼的激进主义正越来越多地转向暴力。根据某些标准，美国的政治暴力已达到数十年来的最高水平。这个国家的两极化和有毒言论——有时被社交媒体推波助澜——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.
汤普森谋杀案尤其暴露了对美国医保系统的愤怒程度。许多人抱怨难以获得负担得起的保险保障，某些治疗也遭到拒绝。今年7月，约100人聚集在联合健康总部外，部分是为了抗议该公司在同意支付费用之前对治疗进行审查的方式。在汤普森遇害现场的弹壳上发现了“拒绝”、“辩护”和“免职”等字样，显然是指对保险公司策略的批评。
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.
无论挫败感多么根深蒂固，都不能成为诉诸暴力或宽恕暴力的理由。可悲的是，相当一部分人却不这么认为。五分之一的美国人认为暴力是国内政治分歧的一种解决方式。事实上，社交媒体上对汤普森被谋杀的冷漠反应令人不安。嫌疑人的X账户粉丝激增，一些评论者称他为“王”，并要求警方“释放他”。网上已经出现了一些人模仿这名嫌疑人装扮的视频。
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.
暴力的常态化意味着大公司不能对高管的安全掉以轻心。近年来，为至少一名高层管理人员提供安保服务的美国大公司比例略有上升，已超过四分之一。许多科技和石油公司的高管——这些公司经常受到公众批评——确实为其家庭提供个人安保和监控服务。Meta去年在马克•扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)的安全上花费了2300万美元。汤普森在高峰时段被枪杀时没有任何安全保护，这应该引发质疑。他的遗孀称他之前曾被威胁过。
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.
无论好坏，随着时间的推移，对首席执行官的要求也在不断提高。现在，对首席执行官的期望已从为股东带来回报扩展到化解公司的社会、政治和环境影响。与此同时，社交媒体让公众更容易接触到商界领袖，这也促使高管成为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.
当然，高管们也会因为应对这些压力而获得丰厚的回报。但是，在美国这个枪支泛滥的社会里，日益粗暴的公众言论迟早会把对一个行业和高管层的持续愤怒转化为暴力私刑。美国公司现在正争先恐后地评估高管是否有足够的安全保障，这是一个可悲但必要的时代标志。