Bupkis is a colorful word with a variety of applications. The most common way it is used is to describe something as having no value or being useless.
It does have a more descriptive meaning. The word is Yiddish in its origin and has to do with the value of animal feces. It usually means something that is completely unsuitable for the purpose to which it is applied. A pungent and more animated meaning of the word is 'shivering shit balls' according to Wiktionary the free dictionary.
I've only heard the term used once and it was on the Dick Van Dyke television show from the 1960's. If memory serves me it was used to describe having been unable to get done what needed to be done. He got bupkis..
That brings me to the thoughts on President Trump.
President Trump has been associated with a rise in racial problems due to his rhetoric involving White Supremacy and its adherents. Never one to back down the POTUS doubled down. Inciting the incendiary forces of racial bias is something I've seen before in men with power like Governors George Wallace and Orval Faubus. The two men used their words and position to bring out the very worst in the human spirit. From the response of President Trump it is apparent to some that he is treading down that same path and we, as a nation, are now seeing the fruit of his words and attitude.
That's the problem the American people are confronted with.
How to address this problem is a problem in itself. Americans are reflexively violent. Violence is a problem solving tool for many Americans. If they have a problem they go to 'War' with it. There must be a better way of problem solving.
My personal feeling is that our problems are indirectly caused by the way the economy has been managed by its Republican and Democratic caretakers. This New York Times article by Eduardo Porter shows how the mismanagement of the economy has left the Average American holding a bag of magic beans, such are empty promises. Empty promises are all the Republicans and Democrats are capable of producing. Service to Wall Street's brand of capitalism mandates that they behave this way.
The indirect effects that afflict the Average American include a way of life that no longer offers a hopeful vision. There no longer is an American Dream we will wake up to find ourselves in. All we have is a writ of empty promises from the Republicans and the Democrats. There never was a realized American Dream. Behind the scenes,like the wizard in the Wizard of Oz, this present nightmare was always present like a virus deeply embedded in the body politic. It has insidiously eaten away at the meaning of freedom so much that what passes for freedom is hardly recognized as freedom.
I want to see the problem solved by a change in the national priorities which would correspond to a change in the human heart. If the reality of an ever shrinking quality of life is not arrived at damned soon, life in the U.S. will become completely unbearable. Perhaps we were seeing the first fruits of such a system of income inequality in the streets of Charlottesville. This is a harvest we must avoid at all costs. Peter Joseph offers an alternative that deserves consideration if only because it is NOT the same old same old tried and failed way.
How do we avoid it? We will not solve our problems by using violence. Violence is the tool of the oppressor. We must change our mind.
What kind of changes can make Capitalism a People Friendly experience instead of the way it is now? We must change our mind. Continuing the way we are now cannot lead to a positive outcome.
When I look for a solution to this situation I begin with the human being and inquire into 'what is the human being'? The Republicans and the Democrats define the human in terms of the economy and human life is valued in dollars. They must do this because service to Wall Street requires they do so. For Republicans and Democrats the human is not a human being, not a homo sapien, but an economic creature designated homo economicus.
We, however, are not homo economicus, ie economic creatures. We are homo sapien(s), human beings. By nature we are spiritual creatures for whom there is a destiny available by virtue of our being.
I have no idea if things can be turned around. Americans have been driven to distraction by the media and political institutions of their own society. The only way they can change their mind and then change their society is to come to a clear understanding of what is creating these intolerable conditions. That understanding will not be spoon fed to them by the big time media.
The understanding will come from the suffering masses and their prophets, men such as Chris Hedges.
The change resulting from understanding who and what institutions are responsible for our rapidly deteriorating society, unless accompanied with a change in the way we understand ourselves, will fail.
When we as a society no longer value human beings in terms of dollars and Wall Street profits we have the keys in our mind to view ourselves 'spiritually' as human beings. By repudiating the authority that labels us and treats us as homo economicus we are born again politically.
By reclaiming our destiny as human beings we able to reclaim an identity that extends to the beginning of time and can be extrapolated to continue to go on forever. I've found that the work of physicist Tom Campbell has opened up vistas of understanding in this regard. If reality is the way he says it is violence and fear have no justification to exist. A compelling synchronicity of ideas is revealed with the same conclusion reached concerning the meaning of Logos.
It is this concept of Logos that is the 'ground of being' that provides a spiritual identifying marker on the human being. We are spiritual because of the identification we have with Logos and as such the future has no end.
There will be complications, of course, but if it is understood we are gonna keep on keeping on and that there is really nothing to lose but bad karma there is every reason to turn to love and peace instead of violence and greed and endless warfare and misery.
The best way to deal with a bupkis POTUS is to ignore him and smile on your brother and sister. It's up to you and me to make the kind of world we as human beings want. Remember Trump is working for the Republicans and the Democrats and they are working for Wall Street and Wall Street will have nothing to do with peace and prosperity for you. We're pretty much going to have to solve these problems without that unholy trinity acting as project manager.
I made a video of some of my art, didn't know what to do with it but now it seems to fit here.
A Far Country
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