Plagiarism 101

[templelady]

VPW was a little man living in the farm lands of Ohio. I don't mean in physical size I mean that he was nothing out of the ordinary, no different from thousands of farmboys of German ancestry in that part of the country.

But he wanted to be more, oh yes much much more. In and of itself that isn't a bad thing--that's where people who become great in life start from , from that desire. But people who become great whether, in sports, or the arts, or science, or politics or business or any other discipline do so because

• They have a natural bent for the area they wish to excel in
  
• They are willing to put the tiime and energy into learning and perfecting their abilities
  
• They understand that life isn't a "gimme" no work or stopping work means ultimate failure.
  

VPW decided he would become a minister.

Then he found out that he was just one minister among many small town ministers in Ohio. So he began to think of ways that his ministry could be different. But when you get right down to it, youth groups, radio programs, study groups, bible schools, are pretty much universal in this country especially in Ohio--nothing to make him stand out there.

And so it went until finally he was asked to leave his church--his attempts at gaining attention just became too much too outlandish for his church.

And so here VPW is, the thoughts in his head I am great, I deserve to be great, People miust be made to see I am great.

The goal of being "great" became all consuming. He was a minister--how to turn that too his advantage. Find a field of study that was not often discussed in depth, read everything you could, pick the brains of the greatest minds on the subject, season well with your own extrapolations, publish and print with appropriate stories of the hardships and toil that went into this work---and---voila---

VPW was now somebody--plagiarism, Private interpretation, twisting of scripture--small prices to pay for finally havig the "world" know that he was great just like he'd been telling himself all these years.

{kind of reminiscent of Smeagol "it's my birthday present" "nasty hobbitsessss they trickssss us, yesss they trickssss us." "what has it got in it's pocketsss, not fair...not fair..." "it's my precious" }

Greatness was his due, he had a right to be venerated, how dare anything or anyone stand in his way, they should be grateful he used their ideas and on.... and on.... and on......

Truly doubt that it every entered his mind that what he did was wrong, or at least not for many years, maybe toward the end when he was reduced to the jester at Martindales court.

At least I like to think so, I want to think he had time to make his peace with Heavenly Father, admit his wrongs ask for forgiveness. It would have been better if he had done so publicly and sooner, much better, but deep in my heart I hope he came back to the light--I really do.

Edited July 14, 2007 by templelady