A little story (sort of political)

[rgraham666]

And called to mind by all the political threads.

Oliver Sacks once wrote about an experience where he observed two sets of oppositely impaired patients watching a speech by Ronald Reagan.

One group was aphasiacs who cannot understand spoken language but can take in information from nonverbal clues. These people laughed hysterically.

"It was the grimaces, the histrionisms and false gestures and, above all, the false tones and cadences of voice" that caused this.

The other groups was tonal agnosiacs who can understand words but miss their emotional meaning. These people sat in stony silence noting, "he is not cogent…his word use is improper." One said, "He has something to conceal."

"Here then," wrote Sacks, "was the paradox of the President's speech. We normals aided, doubtless, by our wish to be fooled were well and truly fooled…And so cunningly was deceptive word use combined with deceptive tone, that only the brain damaged remained intact, undeceived."

Maybe we ought to hire teams of these people to watch all the other speeches and ads we're being exposed to these days. Sort of like a political canary in a coal mine.

 

[Guest]

Earlier today we were trying to come up with suggestions for our daughter to help keep her calm when stupid people annoy her (she's just like me - she does NOT take orders well, and sometimes you have to take orders - anyway). I suggested she imagine someone - okay, the president - naked.

Ewwwws ensued from both kids, and me.

She said that wouldn't help her remain calm, it would make her go blind!

So then the kids decided that our current president probably wears jockey shorts with unicorns on them, has "mommy" tattoos and dances on the roof of the White House.

The jockey shorts came from young son, who giggled so much after he said it I thought he was going to choke.

(He is so damn cute when he giggles.)

But I dunno. In retrospect, they may be right about the unicorn thing.

 

[rgraham666]

Wouldn't surprise me.

 

[Guest]

We read a great deal of Oliver Sacks in grad school.

And I especially liked An Anthropologist on Mars - fits right up our alley.

 

[Corylea]

Maybe we ought to hire teams of these people to watch all the other speeches and ads we're being exposed to these days. Sort of like a political canary in a coal mine.

That's great!

 

[voluptuary_manque]

That's great!

But then, who would run for office?

Of course, the desire for political office should automatically disqualify one from holding it.

I think politics should be done via the Selective Service. Upon reaching an age of some stability, say 50, one's name is put in a pool. Congressbodys, Senators, and the White House are selected by drawing and refusal to serve is punishable by being thrown handcuffed into the Everglades to be consumed by alligators. And you don't get paid for it either!