Jim Devine asked,
Tom, since when do you examine sites that sell term
papers to studentplagiarists?
When I was a sessional instructor in the late 1980s I once
encountered a plague of plagiarism in my class. I think the total number of
offenders was eight or ten. Coincidentally, I also came across a lit
critessay by Neil Hertz onthemoral instructionof
punishingplagiarism. Hertz didn't say so but one might see an almost
Franklinesque tone to the discourse on plagiarism.
There arefurther ironic delights that may be had by
juxtaposing the "essay-for-sale" on the plagiarism site to Franklin's essay on
"The Way to Wealth." At theproverbial level, the student who buys one of
those term papers is violating the principle of character buildingthat
Benjamin prescribes. But at the structural level, the essay itself is a
veritablewhirlpool of citation (and sometimes misattribution) that
anticipates and satirizes the academic apparatus. The conceit is that the author
of the "letter" is Poor Richard, who at the beginning of the essay mentions how
he sometimes quotes himselfto set an example for others so thattheir
citation mayelevate his literary authority.
Poor Richard happens upon a public soliloquy being
delivered by "Father Abraham" that consists entirely of sayings attributed to
Poor Richard, "as Poor Richard says." At the conclusion
of Abraham's speech, his audience (with the exception of Richard)approves
of his moral instruction and proceeds to do the opposite. It is an open
questionwhether Richard's compliance is a sign of his having been
persuaded (by what were ultimately "his own words") or of his having been
*implicated* by the profusion of his sayings.
In other words, the "myth of the self-made man" is first
and foremost a literary construction --and a conscious literary
construction at that. Think also of Robinson Crusoe. Subsequent political and
economic (mis)uses of the motif are suspect not simply because they are based on
myth, nor because they are based on "bad", archaic ormisleadingmyth.
They are suspect because they misrepresent the very myth upon which they are
founded (often without attribution) -- an instance of plagiarism.
Of course I am referring to "economic man" as one such
instance of plagiarism.It isthrough such plagiarism that what
originates as a democratic myth of character building can be falsely presented
as a justification and defense of the devious ways and meansof an
autocracy.
I could go on but I have work to do. "Time is money," as
Poor Richard advised. I'll close with three passages from the turn of the last
century that retell and inflect the Franklinian myth of self-reliance from the
vantage point of autocratic power. The first is from a National Association of
Manufacturers' pamphlet, the second and third froma book published by a
Washington public relations firm.All threewere produced as agitation
against the eight-hour day.
1. "This is a strenuous life. The rewards are for those who work for them
--a corollary of which is that the rewards are not for those who do not
workfor them. The useful man in business -- and the laborer is a man of
businessin his relations with his employer -- succeeds in making himself
efficientand still more successful in proportion as he sees opportunities
andembraces them. If these involve his rising early in the morning, he
risesearly; if they mean that he must sit up late at night, he sits up late
atnight. He lends his hand to the work that is before him, wherever it is
andwhenever it is before him."
2. "Mr. Tynan
in himself furnishes the finest of examples of what a willing,strong,
self-reliant lad may do for himself in America. He left his home inCounty
Tyrone, Ireland, ten years ago and came to this country without
anacquaintance to welcome him anywhere in all its broad limits, He began
workas a mechanic at 25 cents an hour for the Cramp company and has
risensteadily to his present position, one of the most important in the
yards.Mr. Tynan came to America a poor boy in the steerage of a common ship
of thetimes. Within less than seven years he went back to British waters in
chargeof one of the swiftest and finest of the " ocean greyhounds," the
steamshipSt. Paul, built by the Cramps. From the very beginning of his
connectionwith the yard, he worked overtime and his willingness in that
respect withhis intelligence, strength and skill, brought him rapid
advancement."3. "Mr. Tucker is a well-equipped native American, having
had, before heentered the shop, training at one of the leading colleges of
the land andhaving served in the shops with the commonest day laborers and
having risento his present conspicuous and useful office through his own
inherentaptness and sterling qualities of application and energy. He is a
readyreliance to the masters and men of the yard in more ways than can be
definedin the duties he is expected daily to discharge because of his
