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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Homeless-serving groups get together ... Hanson Howard Gallery in Ashland features bird art ... Ashland woman trying to save family in Kenya ... Homeless-serving groups get together ... Hanson Howard Gallery in Ashland features bird art ... Ashland woman trying to save family in Kenya ... RELOCATIONS Herb Rothschild Jr.: Perpetual motion Comment DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Apr. 16, 2016 at 12:01 AM Posted Apr. 16, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Social News This column is about the oddity of our culture — and Donald Trump. “If you’re not moving ahead, you’re falling behind.” Say that to people in the U.S. and we may nod in agreement. Say it to people in other cultures and they won’t make head or tail of it. Think about the assumptions required to render that statement intelligible. First, that life is motion. Motion toward what? Who knows? And even if an end point is reached, it’s only temporary, for life is motion and thus to be at rest is to be dead. It was Thomas Hobbes who, in 1650, first articulated this view of human life: “[T]he Felicity of this life, consisteth not in the repose of a mind satisfied ... Felicity is a continual progresse of the desire, from one object to another; the attaining of the former, being still but the way to the later.” The second necessary assumption is that we are in a race with others — our perpetual motion is perpetually competitive — and our ends are prizes only one can win. If we rest, we lose. In "Troilus and Cressida" (c.1602), as Ulysses urges Achilles to rejoin the fighting at Troy, he warns him that his rivals for glory are breathing down his neck: “If you give way,/ Or hedge [step] aside from the direct forthright [way forward],/ Like to an entered tide, they all rush by/ And leave you hindmost.” Hence the third assumption: We are always either winners or losers. What we achieve is not the point, since no end in itself provides “the repose of a mind satisfied” or says anything substantial about us (e.g., that we are a fine pianist or a brilliant scientist). What counts is the assurance that we are winners. It should now be clear why people in most cultures would find meaningless “If you’re not moving ahead, you’re falling behind.” It’s an odd understanding of life, full of anxious egotism but empty of content. Most of us, if we thought about the assumptions underpinning it, would withhold our assent. It’s irrelevant to our home lives, our social lives, our spiritual lives, our pastimes. Even to our work lives, unless we’re employed in cutthroat workplaces. But when it comes to our patriotism, does content matter? What would make America great again? Lowering our rates of poverty, infant mortality, substance abuse, gun deaths, incarceration? Raising life expectancy, educational achievement, general health? Puleez! These won’t assure us that we’re winners. We need to land on an aircraft carrier and say “Mission accomplished.” Trump’s core strategy is to convince us that he’s a winner and that Americans will be winners if he wins. Everyone who challenges him is a loser. Every nation that challenges Trump’s America will be a loser. Win what? Lose how? Don’t ask. The vagueness of Trump’s call to greatness appeals to unmoored voters, but it alarms the powers other Republicans serve. Until now those powers have benefited from empty appeals to national pride that distract attention from their control of our economy and public policies. But with Trump they don’t know what to expect. He hasn’t threatened the revolution Sanders has, but it may feed his ego to beat them at their own game. Small wonder four of Clinton’s top six donors are giant Wall Street banks. Herb Rothschild's column appears in the Tidings every Saturday. DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Apr. 16, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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