The only thing worse than a liar is a liar that’s also a hypocrite.
—Tennessee Williams
Afew years ago, the Emmy-winning actor William H. Macy was asked for the best piece of advice he had ever been given. “Never lie,” he answered. “It’s the cheapest way to go. Lies cost you a lot and they’re never worth what they cost.”
But as the authors of Unacceptable: Privilege, Deceit & the Making of the College Admissions Scandal noted, precisely as Macy was giving this interview, he and his wife, Felicity Huffman, were fabricating their daughter’s SAT scores (without her knowledge, as it happens, and they were planning to do the same for their youngest daughter). The worst part? His daughter wanted to go to a theater school that didn’t even require high SAT scores! It was the cheapest way to go and yet not remotely worth the cost. Macy’s wife would briefly go to jail for her role in the fraud scheme. His daughter was crushed. Not only was the whole scandal a massive embarrassment, but she also had to bear witness to the hypocrisy of her parents, who had talked so much about being good people and then done such a bad thing, the motivation for which was that they didn’t believe in her! No child deserves that. At the very least, they deserve parents who live up to what they say. Give your kids that. Don’t be a hypocrite.