Lying Liars Who Believe Those Lies
What do Williams Gehris, America’s most decorated war hero, and Walter Williams, the last Civil War veteran to pass away, have in common?
Both were frauds. They spun tales of military heroism, duped the public, and then – whoops – someone discovered that they hadn’t actually achieved the purported feats. Gehris professed to have racked up 54 decorations, when in reality he had just one. And Williams claimed to have fought in the Civil War, but records prove he couldn’t have because he was only five years old at the time.
I came across these and other military fish tales in the article “Fake War Stories Exposed,” in which Anne Morse covers frauds from all walks of life (journalists, actors, politicians, clergymen) who had all kinds of motives (money, glory, self-aggrandizement). That so many “veterans” could pull the wool over our eyes is remarkable, but what’s even more striking is that many of them seem to have convinced even themselves.
Take for example our decorated war hero from above, Williams Gehris. When a reporter confronted him about his lies, Gehris responded that “there are people who don’t believe 6 million Jews were killed, either.”
Or how about former military chaplain and purported Vietnam veteran Gary Probst? Morse writes that when Probst was confronted about his lies, he claimed that he “lied for the Lord.” Which was to say, his (false) heroics garnered him the trust and admiration of his flock, which ultimately was a good thing.
And then there’s my personal favorite, former Connecticut state representative (and yet another Vietnam faker) Robert Sorensen, who came up with this exquisite response to the disclosure: “For the first time ever, the American public had before them a war in their living rooms… Every single person in this United States fought in that war in Vietnam. We all felt the anguish that those people felt. So in a sense I was there.” Right.
It’s possible, of course, that these conmen fully realized all along what they were doing and only gave their feeble excuses out of a last-ditch effort to save themselves. But given what we know about the power of the mind to self-deceive – how it can rationalize almost anything and rework all kinds of memories – I suspect that many of these men had actually come to view their fibs as truth.
Maybe Lenin was correct when he said: “A lie told often enough becomes the truth.”
The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone - Especially Ourselves
As a proud veteran of the War of 1812, I am appalled! [wink-wink]
We keep up with the lies because, at some level, we believe that our version of the truth is *important* even if it’s demonstrably not true.
In junior high, I had a friend who said he could tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi any day of the week, blindfolded, etc. So we did a blind taste test, and he thought the Pepsi was Coke almost half the time. When we showed him the results, he said that we must be trying to fool him. He got really mad and it was weeks before he even talked to any of us. He nearly lost three friends rather than admit that he’d been mistaken… not even a deliberate lie, in his case, but just… wrong.
We are each our own most important audience. We play to that inner critic much more faithfully than to any outside, objective judge.
mopodojo —
I really appreciate your final comment, “We are each our own most important audience.” That plays right into a discussion I am having with my students right now and you said it with style!
We’re talking about some of the differences between the results we get via self-assessments and those we receive from our leaders, peers, friends, spouses, and followers.
Thank you for adding to our classroom discussion!
Guy
Great comment! What exactly is under discussion with your students? Sounds interesting.
As George Costanza said, “It’s only a lie if you don’t believe it.” Perhaps it is better to say if you don’t believe in it, it being the reason or the lie itself. The road to hell is paved with good intentions and there are plenty of places to rest along the way.
Is anyone truly capable of complete self transparency? Only by viewing the world from outside can we remain objective. Interesting post about war veterans. I suppose I don’t mind them indulging in harmless lies that may give them more advantages in life but when compared to Business is Battle mentality. As long as they did more than a former president who served accomplished during his “tour”
Reminds me of tribute bands or tribute singers. There are people who try to create “the Elvis experience” on stage. Dress and act like Elvis, sing Elvis songs. What gets odd, at least to me, is that the also will pretend to be Elvis in their on stage remarks, e.g. between songs they’ll say something like, “in 1962 I moved to Graceland and married by dear wife Priscella”. I have seen these tribute concerts and I always feel a little weird when they do this.
Of course, these people have found a socially acceptable way of impersonating someone else or appropriating someone else’s life experiences but the motivations and behavior sound strikingly similar. Also, we have reenactors, groups of people who get together and reenact battles, often at great expense and effort. I suspect though, that reenactors would strenuously object to being compared to anyone who lied about their military service.
Maybe these people just figured they could create their own reality, something which in our post-modern world is becoming increasingly popular. How many people when confronted with mounting evidence that their lifestyles are unsustainable construct elaborate self-deluding theories about world-governments etc.
What about Joseph Ellis? Noted historian, professor at Mt. Holyoke, liked about Vietnam service.
At least the Supreme Court just held that Congress cannot make this kind of lying criminal, in and of itself.
You write “… but what’s even more striking is that many of them seem to have convinced even themselves.”
I don’t see any evidence in the article that this is the case. In fact, for the majority of the individuals you quote, they admit they were lying, and try to come up with a justification for the lie. That is not at all an example of a liar *believing* his own lie.
George Bernard Shaw (Irish literary critic, playwright and essayist; 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature, 1856-1950) once said: “The liar’s punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.”