In the last verse I think he's saying there's much more to him (any other individual) than meets the eye. We must not judge people instantly. But then he realizes that's pretty hard to do, divide your ideas and beliefs from other people and asks us that question. Because it is hard, and we are prejudice, most times without a reason. My two euros

The first two lines of each verse show the sobering reality of the situation. The next two lines of each verse are the ad hominem response. Except the last one. Although the term ad hominem specifically refers to attacking a person rather than its arguments, it can also just refer to any illogically based argument or action. The voice is of the people who would typically say this stuff (kind of like voice of god is govt) I guess i don't get the last paragraph...im just not clear on what he means by "divide your ideas and beliefs from the people that you don't like"....does he mean separate? or hide? all in all brilliant lyrics

Alex, good interpretation, but in my opinion the song is a little more simple. Ad Hominem, like you said, is the idea of attacking a person, and not their arguments. The subject of the two verses (Foreign culture/poverty stricken) as well as the reference to religious followers, is just pointing out different moieties in which the individuals might think they are better than someone else, simply because of their belief, lifestyle, culture etc. while knowing nothing of the person. ""I’m just a soft-cover version of a much harder tale, A walking resemblance of ruts in the trail" if I could guess, Greg is simply stating that because he may appear to be a simple human being, you have no idea what his actual story is.
But then again, I could be completely wrong. :)

First off all, the title and chorus refer to the principle of attacking a person instead of its arguments. Wikipedia has a pretty detailed explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_Hominem - the "is it possible to divide your ideas and beliefs..."-part is pretty much this as well.

However, the verses themselves I'm not so sure about. They are about a feeling of superiority about others - foreign cultures in the first verse and homeless people in the second verse, but I can't quite grasp how exactly for example the "if you don't have a penny" or "only few can go to heaven..." lines work with the Ad Hominem-theme. It is, of course, about a certain dichotomy - there's "good" people who are both rich and going to heaven, there's "bad" people worshiping the wrong Gods and living on the streets. These themes - money and religion - are present in both verses, but I'm still kinda confused about their exact connection. There's the whole "they were born in a different country and raised on a different religion" and "they were born without a chance and out on the streets" angle that would connect them both (but not the idea of attacking people on a personal and not idea-based level), but I somehow think that'd actually be too do-gooder-like for a Greg song. Also, the "I’m just a soft-cover version of a much harder tale, A walking resemblance of ruts in the trail" part just puzzles me. The later could refer to the fact that we are all products of our surroundings, thus blending the line between the person itself and ideas it contains, but that's a little too easy I guess.

Also, trivia: John Locke atttibuted poverty to weakness of character, which I guess is somewhat related to the second verse.