Jan 20, 2021

The Inauguration Special

Trump is out. Biden is in. The nuclear codes have been changed, and have changed hands. We can’t breathe easy yet because of the pandemic which grips us but we can offer a prayer of gratitude. Gratitude that we have rediscovered our humanity. What is humanity after all but to err. To make mistakes, to see the error of our ways, to feel shame and regret, to forgive others and ourselves, to resolve to become better and move forward, and to stumble yet again. We missed all of that in our last President. Shamelessness, ignorance, self-obsession and thanklessness, sworn enemies of our collective wellbeing, transformed into virtues under him. Emotions such as shame, regret, and guilt, and mechanisms such as dialogue, debate and forgiveness are essential elements of human societies. Even if we display or practice them insincerely, our capacity for them is valuable. There is a proper place in our lives for death, grief and mourning. The highest office in the land paid no heed to such basics.

His followers didn’t stop to think about what he was saying or what they were doing. I remember trying weed in college, thinking that it would somehow give me a special grasp of reality. It turned out that weed didn’t give me any new insights. It just took whatever dumb ideas I already had and blew them up into gigantic proportions. Trump did to his followers what weed did to me.

In the final analysis, it doesn’t matter what Trump accomplished or not. Whether he was the greatest or worst in history. He simply failed to be human. Anything multiplied by zero is zero. For the self-obsessed, it is not easy to not be self-obsessed. 80 million people said, “This will not stand.” So, we get to go back to being human under President Biden. Biden knows all too well what being human is, having suffered the brunt of tragedy, the sting of defeat and the forgiveness of family. In many ways, he is the man for the moment - imperfect, aged and battered, humbled by the passage of time, anxious to be better, and perfectly human. As I write, he has taken office. He hasn’t done anything yet, but he has already made history. The first woman Vice President serves under him. I didn’t think I’d get to see this happen in my lifetime. Dr. Biden is the first First Lady to hold a doctoral degree. His cabinet is historic. I believe Joe when he says he wants to be everyone’s President. Now, let’s find a way to let him be that.

It’s a simple truth. Which is, we are all in it together. Whether you stand under the warm Indian sun or the clear blue skies of America, whether you are surrounded by the serene Arabian desert or the great Australian outback, we are all in it together. The world is watching, as always inspired by America. With this, I hope, come winds of change. I hope we become a world not torn apart by divisive demagogues, but joined by mutual respect. We are all in it together. Anyone who says otherwise is upto no good, I’m afraid.

The definition of human now reverts to everybody on the planet, at least in theory, under the new President. Evil begins with exclusivity, with categorizing some as exceptional and others as not. There is an idea of Caucasian exceptionalism that has gripped America for centuries. Unfortunately, there is no basis for it. Creation is a gapless continuum, and to pretend that there is somehow a break, where the supremacy of a few starts, is nonsensical. America’s fatal flaw lies here. We have to find a way to get rid of this terrible idea, else it will eventually destroy us all.

There are no chosen peoples. All of us are chosen. Human incompetency and hypocrisy can, at times, make this ideal appear unattainable, but it doesn’t take away from the truth of it. For a vast majority of us, our self-esteem and worth is derived from simply being viewed as human by our institutions, leaders, and mythologies. If we take that away, there isn’t much left to fight over.

The last four years were, in some sense, like a barroom brawl for freedom. It’s deeply ironic that the more freedom we have, the more restrictive we have to be in order to preserve it. It’s a conundrum. Freedom is the only thing capable of destroying itself. Strangely, this isn’t true for other “assets” like knowledge, wealth or health, which grow the more we unleash them.

As for what happens to Trump now, it feels like the right thing is to pursue him within the ambit of the law to ensure that not just he, but citizens at large, understand that there are consequences to malice. That’s where I would stop. I wouldn’t go so far as to re-engineer our society to prevent future Trumps. Most cheaters play on the margins, and know their boundaries. California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, is a good example. He is a mediocre, small time cheat. He is the typical cheat. Shame and humiliation are good enough to check them. Cheaters like Trump are outliers. They embody a lifelong attitude of “I’ll keep pushing it as long as I get away with it,” crossing over into insatiable addiction. If we try to prevent Trumps, we’ll end up overdesigning the system to our detriment. I say we stick to the usual norms, and risk the rise of the occasional cancerous lesions like Trump or Hitler. If we try to verify everything, we’ll end up trusting nothing. The price to pay is unaffordable. We could use better understanding of faith, more dialogue around it, and harness it for good. I’m afraid that facts and reason alone won’t carry the day. This, however, is a topic for another day.

It has been a remarkable week. Biden’s inauguration wasn’t the only inspiring moment in it. A callow, inexperienced team of Indian cricketers knocked off a combative and normally ruthless Australian one to claim the trophy. I don’t watch cricket anymore. I’m not as vested in it as I used to be. The last full match I saw was in 2011, when India beat Sri Lanka in Mumbai, to win the World Cup. I figured that was as good a moment as any to quit, and went out on a high. This is not to say that I don’t care. A few weeks back, when India tumbled to its lowest innings total in history, I felt pain. It was like hearing that a great friend, to whom I haven’t spoken in a while, had been hit by a car. The pain was real. For the Indian team to hit nadir, then to resolve to do better, and then will body and mind into an improbable victory is yet another triumph of the spirit. When we get into the zone, anything becomes possible. If we can manage to stay in it, the possibilities become limitless.

As always, stay safe. I’ll leave you with the words of Amanda Gorman, America’s 22 year old Poet Laureate: “There is always light, if we’re brave enough to see it; if only we’re brave enough to be it.”