plagiarism is bad

Dear Jeff,

Don't apologize. Of course we misrepresent each others
thoughts.  How can we not? . The toxic waste rises up
in the denial and the cover-up.
 
A given: plagiarism is bad. Stealing is bad. Lying is bad.
 
Lewis Hyde in The Trickster  Makes This World suggests
a TRIAD, on which he builds  a presentation (through myth
and folklore) of human nature nurturing itself (so to speak)
misrepresenting, of course, but never the less:
 
                  theft, thievery  
GREED      LYING
(literally: hunger)
 
If it’s possible to hose-down and scrub-off the normal
limiting "moral" connotations of those 3 word: (suspending
the judgment they automatically provoke)., they do a
wonderfully fair job of describing my life’s workings and
I bet I’m not the only one. 

I hunger after righteousness and other stuff, Keith,  and
 rip-off parts of any whole I happen to be in at the moment
—a field, a mall, a conversation—naturally selecting  what
suits my agenda (measurable and assessable aims and outcomes)
and then lie about it: the more articulate the greater my cover-up,
the more focused and clarified—the more I occlude the rest of
the whole I've ripped-off. It's a crime, I admit it.
 
But this is mere confession and may confuse the plagiarism issue.
 
IN pursuit of knowledge and intellectual freedom, I am merely
and contiunally trying to separate (for ongoing argument’s sake,
or what’s a  college for) 2 radically opposed and incommensurate
VALUE-SETS (Hawkins refers to them as the 2 Economies) so
as to put  them in play and see what kinds of emergent  phenomenon
and new (innovative) values might  emerge out of their conflict,
engagement, entertainment, opposition.:
 
Conservatory Values  (emphasis on innovating)
 
Academy Values (emphasis on rigor)
 
I do severe injustice to both realms and always need help,
elaborating and characterizing so as to sustain the opposition
and not let either collapse into the other: one dominating,
the other subordinate if not disappearing.
 
The Plagiarism Anguish  (Graham’s article describes the writer as
becoming nothing but a policeman) is proper to the Academy Value
system.  And if Academy Values dominate (which  they do—my
whole ongoing whine), then  Plagiarism becomes an ongoing concern,
worthy of ongoing attention, Writing Center Clarifications, First Week
Orientation Warnings: an Environmental Issue really.
 
For the Conservatory Value “side” of the program: not a problem.
In fact: it IS a problem because it’s such  a problem from the ACADEMIC side,
say:  to the extent it contaminates and retarding the free-play, mess & guess, trial
& erroring of  making sense is some mode or others and renders the WHOLE
suspect, cautious: an atmosphere of  walking on eggs ratther than walking on
water.   .  

Do I overstate?
I am large.
I contain multitudes.

IT (problem) might be framed in terms of DOMINANCE. (and measurable
program goals)   Which of these two value-sets (economies) the composing /
the consuming, the making / the give&taking, the creating / the commodifying,  
is BOSS?
 
The professional industrialized business of hire educating  generates a context
where plagiarism arises as an emergent phenomenon and value.  kids cheating
expose the layered - over façade of the  pursuit-of-knowledge-&- intellectual-
freedom kinds of talk that  represent (or misrepresent) the business and conceals
the rich variety of motivation that drives us all.
 
It’s demoralizing.

An emperor’s old clothing kind of a deal.
WE dress it in indignation. Bad.  But those
kids (the playgerizers ) are our tricksters.   
Kooka Bears sitting in the old gum
tree.

Cherish the thought.

 xxxooo, Sam