KASUR:
Anger is considered as the shrewdest of emotion that always vents itself on the weaker target. Against the powerful, it transmutes into complacency and compliance. In conjugal relationships, women are always the target of masculine outbursts whether triggered by internal or external stimuli. Khaleel ur Rehman Qamar, a renowned writer, says in his typical aphoristic style that a husband who shows off his masculinity to his woman ceases to be a real man.
In Bollywood movie Thappad, when the husband becomes infuriated due to a business loss at an office party, he publicly slaps his wife’s face as she attempts to console him. Notably, while the husband’s brother and friends also attempt to offer comfort, he refrains from directing his anger towards them. The question arises: Why target the wife? The answer lies in the outdated notion of her belonging to the weaker gender. The wife eventually decides to pursue a divorce, having endured disrespect through no fault of her own. Similarly, at workplaces, bosses often cherry-pick their target to redirect their anger and send a message of intimidation to others. The target is always the meek and timid subordinates. In public departments, anger is an epidemic that trickles from upper echelons down to the scapegoat employees.
On a larger scale, governments and departments also earmark the weaker and more docile communities when they fail to overpower the bourgeoisie. We see that when they cannot bring the rich and powerful into the tax net, they corral the salaried class to pay excessive taxes. This selective policy-making is never a sign of good governance.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 25th, 2023.
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