Egomania

Today I watched The Usual Suspects, re-affirming my long-held belief that anyone who ever does anything illegal should not brag. It is obvious to me that those who brag are those who lose. Feed your ego, go to jail.

Why do people have this need to brag? Most of the time, the reason they do a certain act is not to gain recognition or anything; an academic paper would have fulfilled that need.

People are usually involved in illegal acts due to necessity, be it for money or otherwise. Once the need is fulfilled and they are not caught, unfortunately, a feeling of safety and pride form. Pride that they beat the system and got away with it. Pride that they weren’t one of those fools who got caught.

This little felony becomes something they can reminisce about years, months, even days later. They will chuckle about it with their buds, about how they were so reckless, thus revealing how reckless they still are.

I believe that the trick to getting away with something is denial. Never admit to it. No matter how damning the evidence, until you yourself admit to doing the crime, there will always be that sliver of chance that you are innocent in others’ eyes.

The other trick would be complete honesty. Never lie. Always be truthful. Ergo, never do anything you would want to be caught doing.