When a man’s explanation of a situation obviously conflicts with reality, there are three possible explanations:
(1) He is a liar
(2) He is a gullible person, easily misled by manipulative confidants
(3) He is totally delusional and can’t tell the difference
Now it’s not nice to call someone a liar, but this assessment is by far the kindest of the three. It is also the least frightening of the three when the person in question has great deal of control over your personal fate.
A liar, you can confront with the truth and witness the quality of his (sorry for the sexist language, all you chicks out there, but I might have someone specific in mind) denial or the sincerity of his apology.
A gullible person won’t hear you unless you are his confidant. He walks around in a bubble created by his conveniently unseen Geppetto. His gestures are entertaining even though his voice does not sound like it emanates from his mouth, unless it makes wooden clacking sounds and total nonsense.
Easiest the worst is the delusional man. Reality is just one minor sphere of his existence, globes within globes, wheels within wheels whereupon spin strangely gilded angels and faerie queens calling him to the crusader service of ancient Viking warriors, Tony the Tiger, Hercules, and sci-fi interplanetary explorers who fly on gossamer wings like Icarus did for a while, unfettered by the boring gravity of physics or economics.
Better by far to be led into battle by the man who simply lies and knows it. You can come to terms with that.
On a totally unrelated note, I witness today that we are sending people to Mars, that our much-ballyhooed “recovery” netted only 1,000 jobs in December 2003, and that the US WMD Exploration Team in Iraq has been recalled empty-handed. Thank Zeus nobody got a blowjob or this news would be genuinely disturbing. It's only money.
6:19:44 PM 
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