Why Experience Is THE Teacher (rebuttal to Why Experience Is No Teacher)

The original poem by Leonard Cohen is so defeatist, and given that it is in a book called "Flowers For Hitler" I suppose that it is appropriately wrong just as Hitler. Don't be a Nazi, nor give up the fight before it even starts. How you supposed to win then?

Experience to me has proved to be the greatest teacher of all. I've learned more about plants by closely looking at them than any written flora can say, and more of the Indians by observing this land and what remains of their life 1st hand than any book either. Don't discredit that which you can see with your own eyes. This is the most reliable and accurate information of all.

The Original Poem by Leonard Cohen

"Why Experience Is No Teacher

Not mine -- the body you were promised
is buried at the heart
of an unusable machine
no one can stop or start.

You'll lie with it? You might dig deep --
escape a Law or two -- see a dart
of light. You
won't get near the heart.

I tried -- I am the same -- come the same.
I wanted my senses to rave.
The dart was ordinary light.
Will nothing keep you here, my love, my love?"

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