In the Aftermath of an Ivy League Grad Murdering a Businessman, Top Schools Need to Fight for Their Reputation

The storyline was almost reminiscent of the assassination of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a couple of years ago. A young man, with no history of violence, was driven to gun violence by a deeply held grievance, a perceived unfairness shared by millions. But this time, it was not the Unification Church and its forced donations that bankrupted families in Japan. Instead, it was the perennial shortcomings of the medical care system in America. Should the ongoing investigations shed more details on the storyline, the American assassin will likely elicit as much sympathy as the Japanese one.

Luigi Mangione was set up for success in life, except for health. A man born into a family with several successful businesses and local respect, armed with intelligence and degrees from UPenn, and a promising, if dull, career as a software engineer in Silicon Valley. But health insurance denials bothered even the upper-middle-class man with little financial worries. In the days after he murdered the CEO of United Healthcare, the world came to know that he suffered from severe back pain that forced him to abandon pursuits such as surfing and volleyball, and no doubt led to many expensive medical treatments. 

His manifesto denouncing the health insurance industry foreshadowed a personal vendetta that bridges America's polarizing social and political divides. Both the rich and poor, educated and not, white and colored, suffer from a system that empowers private providers. With doctors, pharmaceutical companies, and medical schools raking in millions, it is left to the patients to foot the bill, often in the form of denials for reimbursements for conditions that many felt should be covered. Mangione and millions of others, of various backgrounds, are all victims of this exploitative system.

But as the assassination once again brought to the fore of public attention the sheer injustice of America's medical system, it also raised the question of how to prevent widespread reputational damage from one person's action. As the general public learns about Mangione's story, too many parties are undeservedly dealt a blow. The successful Mangione family of Baltimore does not deserve scrutiny. His former employers and high school had nothing to do with the murder. First and foremost, Penn in particular, and Ivy League in general should not be scrutinized for one man's action.

Of course, the sensationalizing mainstream media think differently. In the many articles about the incident, almost all mention in the headlines that Mangione is an Ivy League grad. The title is meant to shock by implying that those smart enough to enroll in the nation's top schools are not supposed to have social grievances and are not prone to extreme anti-social behaviors. By emphasizing Mangione's Ivy League connection, the media inevitably entrenches a stereotype that the well-educated are meant to be perfect law-abiding citizens with no mental issues, distinct from the rest of the population.

But the nation's top schools may be even more diverse than the rest of America. By selecting uniqueness within the highly competitive and globalized applicant pool, Ivy League schools are even more likely to find those who express their opinions and thoughts in distinctive ways, unencumbered by the pressure of conformity, traditions, and other limiting factors of social norms. By reminding students to remain different, these schools encourage them to change the world by questioning and openly going against the status quo. The cult of "distinct but better" provides confidence to those seeking change.

Unfortunately, for every person seeking change in unique but benign ways, whether it be entrepreneurship to create innovative business models or research to create cutting-edge technologies, there are a few that, lacking better words, are derailed in pursuit of innovation. Many do not go the length of Mr. Mangione, but plenty seek out more adventurous routes, from medical fraud to cryptocurrency, seeking to assert individuality in legally questionable ways. An Ivy League education might have provided the imagination and self-belief to make that happen.

Still, it is wrong to associate an Ivy League education, much less blame it, for violent means of asserting uniqueness. Universities do and should continue to invest in the mental health protection of their students and staff members, ensuring that their cutting-edge lifestyles do not end up harming those of others. As America implicitly questions the merits of elitism in the aftermath of the assassination, the universities should highlight the effort they expended to create the processes and techniques that we all use to check on everyone's sanity.