(But I would not, offhand, recommend SOTU as an example of 'normal Biden'. When we compare that hyped up performance to 'normal Joe' I think POTUS during SOTU was on drugs)
No, what's interesting is that two people can see the exact same thing and understand it in two entirely different ways. It leads one to question whether, in fact, we were truly seeing 'the same thing'...or are our perceptual filters such that we see only what we are inclined to see ... and "disregard the rest".
Which, of course, brings us to the rest of the lyric:
This has been nagging at me for a week, and so I'll go ahead and write it. I was so charmed by your mention of The Boxer, that I let something else you wrote slide: You can't exclude the SOTU as evidence of whether Biden has dementia. A single counter-example is sufficient to prove a proposition false. If a person with dementia could not have given that SOTU, Biden does not have dementia. I've spent enough time around people with various degrees of dementia to believe that a person with dementia could not have given that speech as he did, drugs or no drugs. He was alert, he spoke with expression, indicating that he understood what he was saying, he reacted quickly to the heckling. As you say, that's my perception and our perceptions can differ, so we probably have to agree to disagree about that. But the SOTU can't be ruled out as evidence for whether he has dementia.
Really interesting, isn't it?
(But I would not, offhand, recommend SOTU as an example of 'normal Biden'. When we compare that hyped up performance to 'normal Joe' I think POTUS during SOTU was on drugs)
No, what's interesting is that two people can see the exact same thing and understand it in two entirely different ways. It leads one to question whether, in fact, we were truly seeing 'the same thing'...or are our perceptual filters such that we see only what we are inclined to see ... and "disregard the rest".
Which, of course, brings us to the rest of the lyric:
I have squandered my resistance
For a pocketful of mumbles
Such are promises
All lies and jest
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest
This has been nagging at me for a week, and so I'll go ahead and write it. I was so charmed by your mention of The Boxer, that I let something else you wrote slide: You can't exclude the SOTU as evidence of whether Biden has dementia. A single counter-example is sufficient to prove a proposition false. If a person with dementia could not have given that SOTU, Biden does not have dementia. I've spent enough time around people with various degrees of dementia to believe that a person with dementia could not have given that speech as he did, drugs or no drugs. He was alert, he spoke with expression, indicating that he understood what he was saying, he reacted quickly to the heckling. As you say, that's my perception and our perceptions can differ, so we probably have to agree to disagree about that. But the SOTU can't be ruled out as evidence for whether he has dementia.
I had a similar thought. And I love that song. A lot of wisdom in just those few words.