The New Medical Supernemesis

Luigi Mangione and Ivan Illich in the Era of Insurogenic Death

Verdammt Philistermedizinerpack,
Die ganze Welt ist euch ein Knochensack.
—Karl Marx (1837)

1. The Deal

Imagine the year is 2124 — just before Christmas, in case that matters. The average life expectancy of those who have taken what is now being called “the Deal” is estimated to be 280 years. But since the Deal only became an option around 2105, no one can be entirely sure.

So here’s the Deal: when your body is about to expire, having lived out its natural life, the State expropriates your possessions, pumps you full of a neon-green fluid like anti-freeze, places you in a pod with a 360-degree screen and hi-fidelity surround-sound audio, where you are delivered a steady barrage of pleasing sights and sounds, and unceasing reminders of how fortunate you are to live in an era where life expectancies are 200 years longer than just a century ago. Every now and then a body spills out of its pod, slithers desperately along the floor, leaving a viscous iridescent streak as it goes, wheezing out something like “This… is not… life. This is not life!” before expiring once and for all. But for the most part the Deal works pretty smoothly.

I would contend that we are already in something like this scenario. And I find that I cannot help but volunteer myself for the role of slithering freak on the floor.