LAST week, Saudi-German psychiatrist Taleb al-Abdulmohsen drove his car into a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg. The market was crowded; Christmas break had just begun, giving people an opportunity to spend time with their families and friends and enjoy the festive season.
According to the German authorities, Abdulmohsen, who had earlier described himself as a “Saudi atheist”, supported extreme right-wing groups in Germany and had posted dark and ominous posts on social media. It is unclear what he believed he would achieve by killing innocent people at a Christmas market.
Whatever the reason for this horrific act, unexpected and alarming explosions of rage have become a rising trend over the past year.
A couple of weeks prior to the attack in Germany, a young man named Luigi Mangione shot and killed the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, which is part of the UnitedHealth Group, America’s biggest health insurer. While the motives have yet to be ascertained, the killer’s resentment against the corporate healthcare industry may have been linked to the chronic pain he suffered after a debilitating injury.
Instead of universal outrage, the killing was met with many instances of celebration in American internet spaces as people expressed their anger at how health insurance companies had treated them. Last year alone, the CEO in question had been paid $10 million. Moreover, it was alleged that his company used an algorithm to deny most patients their claims. In fact, one clothing company planned to introduce playing cards featuring the “most wanted CEOs”. The owner of the socialist brand stated: “I’m not suggesting anyone should cause any physical harm to anyone, but I do want people to know who is making their life harder… .”
These cases are only notable because they are stories from places where people generally have it good — the US has the richest economy in the world, and Germany is the largest economy in Europe. The situation beyond these countries, in places where people are struggling far more, is even more dire. The bloody conflagrations in Gaza have killed tens of thousands of people. According to the UN, the largest proportion of those killed in Gaza — nearly 70 per cent — are women and children. The Gaza conflict, as well as the Ukraine and Sudan wars, have led to an escalating number of civilians dying in violence. The victims cannot express their rage, but the devastated and grieving families that they have left behind are full of pent-up anger at a world that seems oblivious to their suffering.
Anger around the world is growing as fundamental rights are snatched away from the people.
Anger around the world is growing as fundamental rights are snatched away from the people. The feeling of being wronged and of being robbed of one’s right to justice and retribution will increase in an apathetic and abusive world. While the actions of Abdulmohsen and Mangione may be extreme, a similar level of anger, coupled with frustration, prevails in places where hunger, poverty and exploitation at the hands of the powers that be are on the rise.
Take, for example, the case of prisoners. According to the UN, over half its member states have overcrowded prisons. The problem is particularly bad in the Caribbean and Latin America, where prisons are operating at 150 per cent of their capacity. The UN says: “Nearly a third of the global prison population remains in pre-trial detention, masking wide regional disparities.” Imagine the resentment that builds up.
Meanwhile, in country after country that did actually have free and fair elections, people voted to remove the incumbents. In many cases, rage against existing governments has been generated by the inability of world economies to meet the economic shortfalls of the post-Covid era. The fury that inequality, poverty and the lack of justice induces is reflected in our everyday actions as well. There is ample evidence of this in this country. Take road rage; drivers on the roads of our cities seem to be immersed in a kind of aggression that makes one scared to be behind the wheel. This is not the usual kind of jostling and jams, which our large cities like Karachi are notorious for; this new anger is one where everyone is poised to fight and cause harm to someone. Pent-up fury with nowhere to go often manifests itself in this way.
People have come up with ‘innovative’ ways to address the rage they feel. For instance, the French have a franchise they call ‘The Fury Room’, which consists of rooms where people vent their rage by smashing plates and other objects. Apparently, these rooms are booked to capacity every day. This is an alarming reflection of how anger becomes the galvanising emotion in our society.
It is not supposed to be this way. Love and fellow feeling are supposed to be the driving force behind all our actions towards others. Underpinning our international and national institutions is a strong belief in the centrality of human dignity, justice and equal rights. Constitutions worldwide stress on these principles. But given the state of rage that exists across the globe — in both developed and struggling economies — it is no surprise that these once much-respected documents are being tossed aside, amended, twisted and turned, giving the rest of us yet another reason to be enraged.
In such a situation, one could be forgiven for feeling that the end of the world is near. We will have to wait and see what new aspect of rage, which continues to fuel wars, feuds and murders, we will see in the next 365 days. But while it is impossible to say what exactly will take place, one can be fairly sure that it will be difficult to put rage back in the bottle.
The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.
Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2024
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