There is no human being in the world more indignant than a liar who has been cornered. Even if the corner in question is built entirely of electrons and the liar so cornered is safe behind a computer screen, you will enrage no person so much as the individual whose tall tales you refuse to swallow.

In the online world of self-defense, combatives, and martial arts, tall tales are the foundation for many Virtual Tough Guys' delusional architectures -- architectures that support the false and inflated identities they have built for themselves.

Taken by itself, this is neither here nor there, though one supposes some martial newbies run afoul of the self-proclaimed super ninjas and SpecOps BlackBag operators who pretend to be imparting useful information. There is no way to tell how many people have been burned and dropped the pursuit of self-defense in disgust. Hopefully those so victimized realize that for every crackpot and egomaniac there are two good instructors and half a dozen relatively benign McDojos.

In the endless search to absorb that which is useful and discard that which is not, many find their way blocked by the titanic egos and endless rivalries among practitioners, instructors, and students in the realm of the martial. The scenario may sound familiar.

Self-proclaimed Commando Instructor Ultra Master X claims to be teaching a martial art that has been handed down from the kings of Atlantis, which happens -- like so many arts -- to look a lot like ju jitsu. Instructor X gets plenty upset when anyone says they don't believe him, and he's got a few friends who buy his video tapes (which he insists be called "courses," not "videos") or who met him at a seminar once, who are only too happy to chime in and support him.

Those who think Instructor X is a liar and a faker can't stand to see fiction passed off as fact, so they say so. The two sides start trading insults. Alliances are formed. Teacher Z of School Y, which split from School K when Teacher Z got into some sort of ideological or logistical or even financial spat with School K's founder, now can't stand School K's founder. He allies himself with Instructor X, while those who support School K's founder start forming up on the other side of the Virtual Line of Doom the parties have drawn in the electronic sand. Skirmishes are waged in various online forums, the parties concerned trash each other in list-served e-mail groups, and everyone concerned becomes increasingly furious.

Soon various participants to the argument start demanding that the others put up or shut up. Instructor X, who lives twenty states removed from the people with whom he is arguing, offers a free "hands on" demonstration to anyone who doesn't believe, knowing that no one will take him up on his offer -- and of course attempting to end the discussion with this implied argumentum ad baculum. The few critics who've actually seen Instructor X's videotapes tell all those who can't afford the overpriced "courses" in question that they're crap. The critics who haven't seen the tapes are perfectly willing to accept these judgments. And Instructor X continues to whine and scream that he's misunderstood, that he's been treated unfairly, that anyone who won't believe him has a closed mind, and that he's the greatest practitioner of the greatest art in the world, if only people would stop asking him pesky questions about his falsified credentials, his art's fictitious history, and the fake name he uses.

Along the way, something is lost: the goal of self-defense. Well-meaning practitioners, teachers, and students become side-tracked dealing with the egomaniacal nonsense spewed by those claiming to do the impossible in order to gratify their personal needs. The fakers, for their parts, become increasingly entrenched in their delusions of greatness. And everyone forgets, despite the best of intentions, that the reason we're here is to fight THEM, the faceless masses of societal predators who seek to eat us alive.

For pity's sake, let's stop this already. If you're an earnest teacher or a student of a legitimate art, respond to criticism with facts and logical argument. If you're a fake, drop the pseudonym, distribute the videos for free, come clean, and join us in the search for knowledge. Stop trying to be something you're not -- and stop cluttering the world of self-defense with the pointless politics of petty rivalries and damaged egos.