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Book Review

A Review of In Denial, from Bo Keeley

In the final analysis it matters not what one scored on his SAT's or whether he made the Dean's list, it's only his capacity for self deception which governs the extent to which he will blinker himself. This also holds true for women, perhaps even more so. I believe the geneticists will uncover a lobe in the brain for judgment, the ability to make proportionate, balanced decisions all day long without emotional overlap. I also believe that fewer than 15% of people have this inborn capability. Anecdotally, that's roughly the same number who are the swing votes in political elections. They can change their minds without short-circuiting emotionally. The other 85% have more difficulty.

I read your review of "In Denial" despite my disinterest in the topic because you produce original, reasonable ideas. They, of course, don't win popularity contests, viz women above. Yet it's refreshing to find someone who steps out of the crowd and points back at their failings while offering potential solutions.

I want to add a couple thoughts. You, the psychologist, often bring up self-deception that I, the vet, illuminate with animal examples. Self-deception is rampant in first-world countries because our essentials are provided and forgotten. Self-deception then comes in two flavors: unrecognized and recognized. We both prefer someone w/ blinders he doesn't see rather than one who dons them. Your estimate that 15% of people a giant step - own inborn ability to make hard, rational decisions is refreshing, and I don't know if I m included. Remember the scorpion given a ride by a coyote across a stream and then who stung it, saying, 'it is my nature'. This wasn't rational because the stream may flow again. Decision making varies not only w/ the species but w/ the individual, and to some extent w/ the environment. All humans are equal but some are more equal than others that point is hard to swallow, but pivotal today. Women are handicapped (aided, they say) in decisions by emotional makeup. Certain races reason less well than others, but you must maintain the big picture that it's all a tradeoff: we are fond of saying in sports, did you ever try to catch a black man; or in business, did you ever work w/ orientals; or in board games, did you ever sit across a chess board from a jew. As for communism in "In Denial", my travel to 96 countries yields that the majority prefer to live emotionally, irrationally, to smile stupidly through the day at each other, and to accept communist precepts. It's their nature.

I have a new neighbor. A tarantula moved into a hole by my front door w/ the turn of cool September. She, smaller (4 ) & browner than the itinerant male, spins a web each morning over the 2 entry and sleeps all day. Each evening she breaks the silk and sits on her dirt porch awaiting courtiers. Recently on hands and knees w/ penlight and magnifying glass I studied her. A moth flitted into the penlight and she grabbed it in a wink w/ front legs and stuffed it in her mouth. That's my review of things from the desert.