Book Commercials & Misanthropic Observations

The difference between academic exercise and real life

One of my current reads is Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and Marriage (Revised and Updated Edition) - Paul Ekman

I’ve come across multiple references to Mr. Eckman’s work over the last couple of years in the following books:
• Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking Malcom Gladwell
• Intuition: Its Powers and Perils (Yale Nota Bene) - David G. Myers
• Why Marriages Succeed or Fail: And How You Can Make Yours Last - John Gottman
• Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts - Carol Tavris, Elliot Aronson

All these authors bow to Ekman as the master of reading faces and emotions. Knowing this to be an area that I can be hilariously imperceptive, one day this summer I picked up 2 of his books. (I have yet to start the second one.) I should confess that one reason I am so insensitive in this area is my simple lack of interest in people, and what I consider to be unnecessary melodrama. I also know that this is a weakness and should be addressed; hence my interest.

I am on a chapter where he tells of the different experience he has between
1. training professionals, CIA, Law enforcement, NSA and Secret Service in the art of catching lies, and
2. Teaching this as a college level course to both professors and students.
He states that: with the exception of the Secret Service, who surprised him with their skill level, both groups have an equal level of ability, or more accurately, lack of ability. What astounded him, though, was that the academic world was infinitely less open to correction and growth. The reason he states is that the academics had more invested in their reputations and could not admit to not being experts, whereas the law professionals knew they needed to simply be excellent in this area, regardless of how it wounded their pride to have to admit they were not as skilled as they thought.

Where this one aspect of this fascinating book applies to us is this:
1. We can be academic theologians, taking pride in our knowledge and reputation for Godliness, pompously writing off anyone who does not fall in line,
2. Or, we can understand that this is real life, and Truth matters and we do not already have all the answers. And we need simply to be excellent in our pursuit of being more like Christ, regardless of how it wounds our pride to discover (and have others know) that we are not as skilled as we thought.