When there is not enough time to coordinate with each other, these people often tell different stories at first. Their stories then undergo continuous revisions until they finally settle on one. Several different versions are born as a result and by this time, you will find things messed up to such an extent that you can hardly handle it. We realize, in most cases, that it would have been better for us to tell the truth from the outset. But we are still often tempted to tell a lie because we know that some lies get by undetected.
People sometimes become smart enough to maintain consistency in telling lies.
But after they repeat the same lie several times, they often find themselves internalizing the lie to such an extent that they believe it is true. At this stage, they lose the ability to distinguish between reality and the fantasy. We have already seen many of these kinds of people at parliamentary hearings. Justice Minister Ahn Dong-su yesterday resigned, taking responsibility for the controversy over the draft speech text that his secretary had handed over to the media two days before. I can guess what he, a lawyer who had failed in the National Assembly elections three times, felt when he heard the news of his appointment.