As teachers we often fail to prepare our students for effective functioning in the "real world", that is, the world outside of academia where survival of the fiercest and exploiting legal and illegal opportunities is the rule (just watch "The Wolf of Wall Street" or the older but similar film "The Boiler Room" with Ben Afflect; see the Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiler_Room_%28film%29 ). No longer will students be lovingly cared for by wise professors (yes, Louis, I'm talking about you) but are placed in a rat race where rewards are not given to the wise or the intelligent or the compassionate or good but to the person who can get suckers to hand over their money to you -- remember that not everyone can do this but as Alec Baldwin's character in the movie "GlenGarry Glen Ross" points out, it take brass balls to sell real estate to suckers and the good news is if you come in third in sales, you're fired.
The stimulus for prompting this response is the shenanigans going on across the river in the Garden State. No, I don't mean the George Washington bridge and related political hijinks that are coming to light -- why oh why did they have to change Court TV to Tru TV, there is sure to be a lot of feisty courtroom action, Jersey Style. No, that is not it, rather it has to do with the "Big Game" in football aka as Stephen Colbert has called it, the "Superb Owl". The NY Times has an Op-Ed piece by the person who is founder and supervising attorney of the "Trafficking Victims Advocacy Project" at the Legal Aid Society. The article can be accessed here: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/opinion/the-super-bowl-of-sex-trafficking.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20140201&_r=0 The article is about a myth that surround the Superb Owl, indeed, all major sporting events including the Olympics which is summarized in the following quote: |...wherever the Super Bowl is held, is an abundance of stories, from |Reuters to CNN, reporting that the event will cause a surge in sex trafficking |to capitalize on the influx of fans and tourists. | |Representative Christopher H. Smith, Republican of New Jersey and |co-chairman of the House anti-human trafficking caucus, and Gov. Chris Christie |announced a law enforcement crackdown. Cindy McCain, in advance |of next year's Super Bowl in Arizona, flew in to stand at Mr. Christie's side, |declaring that the Super Bowl is "the largest human-trafficking event on the |planet." | |The problem is that there is no substantiation of these claims. The rhetoric |turns out to be just that. Further quoting the article: |No data actually support the notion that increased sex trafficking |accompanies the Super Bowl. The Global Alliance Against Traffic in |Women, a network of nongovernmental organizations, published a report |in 2011 examining the record on sex trafficking related to World Cup |soccer games, the Olympics and the Super Bowl. It found that, "despite |massive media attention, law enforcement measures and efforts by |prostitution abolitionist groups, there is no empirical evidence that |trafficking for prostitution increases around large sporting events." As the article points out, believing in such a myth has consequences because it removes police and related services from real problems and forces them to spend their time arresting prostitutes -- apparently the johns get away scot-free. Now stop and consider the skill and ability necessary to be able to take a non-existent event and make other people believe that it is real, nay, not only real but causes people to apply precious resources to nonexistent problems (consider a cop who is forced to participate a sweep of prostitutes in an area, an action they have not done before and do so only because of the Big Game; if asked why, it is quite likely the response would be "I'm just doing my job."). The people in charge, the "bosses" if you will, have to be really effective liars to make people believe their lies (yes, let's kick Richard Nixon one more time) and we should remember that importance of this skill in surviving in the real world. I am reminded of a story told in the biography of the beloved former governor of Louisiana Huey Long who knew how to give a great political speech and work the marks. At one political event Huey Long talked about the importance of family and family members doing things together. He talked about how his parents would gather all the kids on Sunday morning and they would take their horse and buggy to church to re-affirm their faith. After the event one of Long's inner circle is alleged to have said to Long something like "Huey, I didn't know your family was so religious" to which Long replied "Don't be an idiot, my family didn't even own a buggy." Of course, if one is not careful, it is possible that one will get caught in the lie. But this is not as bad as it is usually made out to be -- there are many famous people who have lied and managed to survive (e.g., on Wall Street, hikers of the Appalachian trial, cable news channels, and so on; remember, even Richard Nixon was rehabilitated and Ronald Reagan could not remember being told of trading with Iran to get weapons to Nicaragua -- as the character Robert Ritter tells Jack Ryan in the movie "Clear and Present Danger", if asked about an illegal CIA operation by a congressional committee, say: "I have no recollection, Senator." -- NOTE to memory research: never serve as an expert witness on memory in these situations if you want to maintain your credibility). So, given the importance of effective lying in everyday life, what activities are best to develop this critical skill? -Mike Palij New York University m...@nyu.edu P.S. 1/2 ;-) --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. 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