Plagarism
As our nation's youth prepares etc. I thought it would be a good time to talk about plagarism. I wanted to back when the Ben Domenech scandal was being blown out of proportion, but I didn't have a pulpit back then. So I had to keep my big ideas to myself, which will give me a stroke if I'm not careful. SO. Here they are.
Everyone tells the college students that plagarism is a crime (I think it is typically college policy to make them do that) but most of them go on, uninvited, to tell you that plagarism is a sin. It is stealing from writers' children. It is worse than stealing! It is like murder. Murdering the words that leave the writers' lips.
I think an important distinction, and where a lot of moralizers slip is that there are two very different kinds of plagarism. Neither one is pernicious, but they are very different. One happens when an important, well-known person steals the work of a nobody who has had a rare moment of genius. The important person adds the work to his heap of renown, which is fine for him, but the nobody remains in obscurity, possibly for the rest of his life.
This is clearly harmful to the nobody, and this kind of plagarism looks bad. But it doesn't happen very often. And a nobody who only has one clever idea in his lifetime probably deserves to stay a nobody.
The other kind is when a nobody steals from an important and respected source. This is even less harmful. Sure, the nobody achieves more fame than he ought to -- but think how many other people can say the same. As long as our president is in office, complaints about undeserved importance sound pretty hollow. If Mr. Domenech steals an essay from P. J. O'Rourke, who's harmed? Not O'Rourke; he's already as famous as he's going to get, and the number of readers he lost to Ben Domenech is probably less than one.
The most worst thing about anti-plagarism memos is when they talk about it as if it were a kind of theft. It's not. At best it is a "theft" of fame, but there are fundamental ways that stealing a CD player is different (and worse) than stealing fame. Most importantly, plagarism usually increases the aggregate fame, whereas item theft does not increase the aggregate number of items. So in conclusion: Plagarize this article. You know you want to.
Everyone tells the college students that plagarism is a crime (I think it is typically college policy to make them do that) but most of them go on, uninvited, to tell you that plagarism is a sin. It is stealing from writers' children. It is worse than stealing! It is like murder. Murdering the words that leave the writers' lips.
I think an important distinction, and where a lot of moralizers slip is that there are two very different kinds of plagarism. Neither one is pernicious, but they are very different. One happens when an important, well-known person steals the work of a nobody who has had a rare moment of genius. The important person adds the work to his heap of renown, which is fine for him, but the nobody remains in obscurity, possibly for the rest of his life.
This is clearly harmful to the nobody, and this kind of plagarism looks bad. But it doesn't happen very often. And a nobody who only has one clever idea in his lifetime probably deserves to stay a nobody.
The other kind is when a nobody steals from an important and respected source. This is even less harmful. Sure, the nobody achieves more fame than he ought to -- but think how many other people can say the same. As long as our president is in office, complaints about undeserved importance sound pretty hollow. If Mr. Domenech steals an essay from P. J. O'Rourke, who's harmed? Not O'Rourke; he's already as famous as he's going to get, and the number of readers he lost to Ben Domenech is probably less than one.
The most worst thing about anti-plagarism memos is when they talk about it as if it were a kind of theft. It's not. At best it is a "theft" of fame, but there are fundamental ways that stealing a CD player is different (and worse) than stealing fame. Most importantly, plagarism usually increases the aggregate fame, whereas item theft does not increase the aggregate number of items. So in conclusion: Plagarize this article. You know you want to.
posted by apk01004 at 11:42 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home