Weaponizing  Anger

 Human beings like the animal kingdom, and in fact all of nature, are essentially peace loving and want nothing more than to go about their lives harmoniously. Yet we live in what has been called the Age of Anger. It is the age of extreme emotions – of like or dislike emojis. It is also a time of dissatisfaction, disruption, imposition, whether by the state, or economic forces, through their various powerful mechanisms of control, in societies the world over, some visibly, like Pakistan, some invisibly in affluent countries. Pew Research conducted in 27 countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia where the majority believed elected officials do not care what ordinary people think, that change of governments will make no difference to this fact, and most politicians are corrupt.

Pankaj Mishra in his book The Age of Anger: A History of the Present, writes “the sense of being humiliated by arrogant and deceptive elites was widespread, cutting across national, religious and racial lines” creating “negative solidarity” and the resentment of the left-behind.

The collective response can be one of cynicism or depression with no hope for change or one of resistance. As Christina Care says we’re finally “allowed” to be angry, at a lot of things —  the state of the world, politics, etc. provided we channel our anger into action.

Anger is one of the basic emotions experienced by all humans. Yet according to neuroscientist, Dayu Lin, anger is stimulated by a tiny part of the brain near the bottom of the hypothalamus, with  the  more dominant part of the brain, the frontal cortex generating empathy and compassion. 

Anger at its most basic level is a protective response – protecting oneself or one’s loved ones, or one’s country. It is a reaction, which implies it has a source. Anger has many stages from frustration to extreme violence, although violence itself does not need anger as a trigger as seen in the actions of gangs and cartels which follow a dispassionate code of “No fear, no mercy”.

Military training encourages aggression meant to inflict intentional physical harm on other people, while

discouraging anger which implies loss of control. The Persian king Xerxes I, had the waters of the Hellespont whipped after his bridges were destroyed by a storm, delaying his invasion of Greece. On another occasion, he wrote an angry letter to a mountain blocking his path.

Of all the emotions humans possess, anger is seen as the most negative.  Displays of anger in a child – whether temper tantrums or rudeness has been called a gun pointed at a parent, with the implied message “see what you made me do?”

While at a personal level anger is seen as destructive, a quality to be discouraged, collective anger is seen as a positive motivator for change. As the saying goes, “If you are enraged, you are engaged”.

Anger is justified by political scientists if the root cause is injustice or corruption. It is seen as a key element for collective action and is a powerful agent of change. Rational and legitimate anger  is a form of altruism or selfless concern for the well-being of others. It activates pride by uniting people to fight for a noble cause, and generates a sense of hope in righting a wrong. It encourages more people to participate in the political process. Politicians harness anger for protests and to motivate revolutions. Collective anger may take the form of a peaceful Gandhian Civil Disobedience action or a chaotic and brutal French Revolution .

Anger as a political weapon is successful if contained, but relies on the implied threat that if grievances are not addressed immediately, the anger will spiral into uncontrollable violence.  It is a fine line to walk between channeling collective anger and ensuring  it does not spin out of control. To avoid a confrontational abyss, successful political activists focus on specific and well-articulated goals – a change in a specific law, the end of apartheid, or the protection of women in the workplace.

As Peter Lyman has suggested, “anger is an indispensable political emotion—for without angry speech the body politic would lack the voice of the powerless questioning the justice of the dominant order”.

Channeling anger into action such as the spontaneous dumping of rubbish at Karachi electric offices in response to additional billing on electricity bills for garbage collection, diffuses rage with humour. This is also the effect of political memes, songs played at rallies, political cartoons  or the witty satire of the inimitable Anwar Maqsood that create a safety valve calming the intensity of anger, while acknowledging its legitimacy. 

 

Durriya Kazi

Karachi

September 24, 2022

durriyakazi1918@gmail.com