Be honest… the problem is that no one likes to get caught. This is especially true when you know you aren’t suppose to do something but you did it anyway and everyone knows that you know you shouldn’t. It’s bad enough that you got caught but to realize that everyone knew this wasn’t an innocent act makes the situation doubly bad.
We all know the easiest thing to do is to admit we made a mistake and take responsibility for our actions and accept our ‘punishment’. Yet this often is the last thing people do. “Trying to get away with it” is often the first line of defense. What is (because let’s face it… this still happens) the first action you fall back on? Proclamation of innocence? Justification? While there may be other things someone might do, they typically fall into one or the other of these categories.
Do you insist on innocence to the point of, “…methinks he doth protest too much.” Truly innocent people typically aren’t overly boisterous and support their position with verifiable facts. The louder you yell the more I doubt. Some of the more rational (sometimes spelled w-i-l-y) begin a ‘logical’ justification of what and why they did what they did. The less the facts and the more the words of justification, the more I question. Much to my sense of amusement (irony) it seems that when you try to get away with ‘it’, you are more likely to get caught.
But there is an overriding character issue that presents itself. Why do you try and deflect and/or mitigate what was done? Why not assume responsibility? Is it perhaps that the act you committed is in fact a denial of a valued character component? You may not be willing to acknowledge that you presented a person who you are now ashamed of… yes? So… what do you do when you are caught?
