Aakash Singh Rathore as Dr Jekyll is a Professor of Philosophy, Politics and Law, author and editor of over 20 books and counting, and as Mr Hyde, one of India’s top-ranking Ironman triathletes.  @ASR_metta
Credit: Special arrangement
Do you remember Don McLean’s 1971 masterpiece, American Pie? ‘Bye bye, Miss American Pie/ Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry/ And good ol’ boys were drinking whiskey and rye/ Singing, “This’ll be the day that I die/ This’ll be the day that I die”.
American Pie is a song about life’s many contradictions. It’s written from the vantage point of a country undergoing profound social and cultural upheaval in the wake of the Vietnam war. McLean’s lyrics deftly and poignantly contrast nostalgia and disillusionment, hope and despair, tradition and change, unity and division. The song begins with the iconic lines, ‘A long, long time ago/ I can still remember how/ That music used to make me smile’. These opening lines set the tone of nostalgia and reflection that permeates the song. The music used to make him smile, but as we soon learn, this music has died – indeed, those are the song’s closing words. Thus it seems that nostalgia has given way to disillusionment, hope has given way to despair. And yet, what do we make of the fact that the song itself doesn’t just rock, it rollicks? This is a clear contradiction.
Speaking of contradictions, Enlightenment-era, German philosopher Immanuel Kant had a concept he referred to as ‘the antinomies of reason’. These were a set of contradictions that arose whenever the feeble human mind attempted to understand the fundamental nature of the universe. And that brings us to Donald Trump. Or rather, to the political opponent whom he just unceremoniously trounced, Kamala Harris.
How did she lose so badly? Kantian antinomies appear on full display right now throughout the global media as journalists everywhere attempt to offer their answers to this question. On the one hand, we are told that her campaign messaging leaned too far to the left to attract the crucial centrist-oriented independent voter; but, on the other hand, that she alienated the Democratic base by reaching across the aisle to Republicans, garnering endorsements from the likes of Liz Cheney and over 200 other former Republican officials. On the one hand, we hear that she failed to sufficiently support Palestinians in their tragic plight, losing the Arab-American demographic that is especially sizeable in the swing states; but, on the other hand, that she alienated Jewish voters by not selecting Josh Shapiro as her VP running mate, and failing to express pro-Israel sentiments.
On the one hand, we are told that Kamala failed to adequately distinguish herself from the unpopular policies of the incumbent administration; but, on the other hand, that her campaign failed to leverage the popularity of Joe Biden, not even permitting him to stump for Harris in his home town of Scranton, in the most vital swing-state of Pennsylvania.
I guess I’ve thrown my own hat into the ring here for offering up the reasons for Trump’s victory over Harris. The thing is, ‘reasons’ is the wrong word. For, I, like Kant, don’t really think that reason can account for it. As I have been arguing in this column for three years now, we are ourselves navigating profound social and cultural upheaval, not unlike Don McLean’s generation in 1971. Or to be more concrete, in an era increasingly characterised by post-truth, not reason but emotion must prevail – maybe not even emotion, but basic animal instinct.
‘But February made me shiver/ With every paper I’d deliver/ Bad news on the doorstep/ I couldn’t take one more step/ I can’t remember if I cried/ When I read about his widowed bride/ But something touched me deep inside/ The day the music died’.
There’s a sad joke making its rounds amongst the NRIs living in the US about how uncanny it is that the electoral choice in America now boils down to a decision between a geriatric authoritarian narcissist whose hardline nationalist, misogynist, anti-minority gestures are fervently championed by masses of hooligan supporters swept up in his cult of personality, versus a well-meaning, but not-so-bright, only half-inspiring, half-Indian. It’s funny but laughing at it brings no delight. Not only because it hits so close to home.