"It is true that the general spirit of an age leaves its imprint on the character of its celebrated individuals, and even their particularities are but the very distant and dim media through which the collective light still plays in fainter colours." (Hegel, Logic 279).
A cruelly exact delineation of the physiognomy of the decoy President, wherein the 'collective light' is indeed present, although the 'media' is perhaps a little dimmer than usual -
'Character tells in public appearances. W. often looks confused. His brow tightens as if he were enduring some pain he can’t quite locate. It could be on his foot, in his bowel. But it is only the cost of speaking, or thinking, itself.'
- or perhaps it is the foreign, unwelcome presence of the World Spirit, vexed at the paucity of its raw material.
Meanwhile, at the Republican Convention:
Suddenly, one of Fortuno's sentences came billowing across the tiers: 'President Bush believes in empowering his panics.'
I considered this for a moment. 'That's true,' I said to myself. 'That's obviously true. He empowers his panics, gives them a motivating role in policy formation. That's it. Bush's panics are the central element in his administration.' I looked up.
Fortuno: 'And for the first time, his panics . . . '
'Yes,' I thought. 'If only he could control his panics.'
'Yes, for the first time . . . '
'Hispanics!' I said out loud. 'He empowers Hispanics.'
'That's right!' said a woman next to me with Stars and Stripes doodlebugs bouncing about her head.
Thus, the misheard statement releases more meaning than the statement misheard. Perhaps henceforth people will grow deaf in deference to their intellect.