In December 2024, Luigi Mangione murdered UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and Lily Phillips’ slept with 100 men in a single day. At first glance, these events seem unrelated—one driven by populist rage, the other by the collapse of traditional sexual ethics. But together, they gesture toward the wrath and wretchedness of late modernity. We live in a cultural moment captivated by the urge to destroy and lost to the despair of living in the ruins. Luigi embodies the impulse to tear down; Lily, the disillusionment of living in the wreckage.
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Luke Simon
Luke Simon is a content strategist for The Crossing and MDiv student at Covenant Theological Seminary. He has written on Gen Z, technology, masculinity, and the church. Luke lives in Columbia, Missouri, with his wife, Gigi.
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