Anger is a National Disease

Adil Najam

This picture is of PIA employees in a violent fist fight (haatha-paee) at Karachi airport during a strike by PIA employees. The strike, its reasons, the political economy that led to it, the state of the national airline, and the politics that surround it are all important topics and all worthy of discussion. So is this picture as a picture.

At one level the context of this picture matters little. It is a representation of an angst and an anger that has now become a national disease. It is a representation of an anger that we see around us everywhere – and all the time. Anger is a natural and normal phenomenon. But there is nothing natural and nothing normal about the level of anger that seethes in our society. Indeed, within all of us. An anger you see here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here. Indeed, you cn see it on display all over our comments section.

The first step in anger management, we are told, is to recognize that one has a problem. Let us begin, please, by doing just that!