As nearly ex-president Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. fades, fades into the dark night, I think the time is ripe for a great personal story. I know this happened because I was right there when it did.
Once upon a time, when Hyehudi Editor was a young lad (I mean even younger), way back upon Barack Obama choosing Biden as his assassination insurance, I mean running mate, I asked a higher-educated American adult many years my senior some question about the thorny matter of proper source attribution.
After answering the actual question (probably by saying “I don’t know”) my quasi-mentor found this a golden opportunity to give The Big Talk about the mortal sin and snare in the path of the precocious young and inexperienced student: Plagiarism (In brief: “Don’t“).
By way of illustration, he told me a horrific cautionary tale about one up-and-coming politician, who had so much going for him at the time, who said and did all “the right things” (you know what that means), and then, and then (A BEAT, as my wee heart swelled with semi-empathy and a painful sense of foreboding)… self-sabotaged his political career forever by just one moral slip up, one single hamartia.
To give a big speech, Mr. Biden plagiarized an earlier speech by Mr. Neil Kinnock, a politician in the British L. Party (and fabricated his own family history to fit, too, though I wasn’t told that part). And that’s it, no other crimes committed YET (or so I was informed). But because of that one act of egregious plagiarism, Mr. Biden, no matter how high he might rise, even to vice president if Obama wins (almost anyone can rise to the highest office in our great republic, after all), would never ever (NEVER, you hear?) win the Democratic Party nomination for president, let alone become a sitting US president, certainly not via a free and fair federal election (perish the thought of there existing another type in America, ahem).
(And he so dearly wanted to grab the ring. “Everyone” knew that was Joe’s big dream. One can almost feel sorry for the poor chap…)
Public opinion could never allow it. His name was mud. American voters have standards, dontcha know that?!
For Want of a Nail…
“Yes, my dear boy. Nothing is worse than plagiarism (And getting caught. But criminals are always caught in the end). So, dot your i’s, eat your pies, and never plagiarize.
“Run along now.”
Ah, my dear audience (er, “readience“?). That was (likely) the first time my ears ever heard of the man called Joseph Biden. But, eh, certainly not the last time בעוונותנו הרבים… So, yeah, that little Wisdom Story didn’t age well (I don’t think plagiarizers paid a high political price in the past, either. Gary North says something similar).
And yes, plagiarism is still bad.
True Story.
(Sorry, there was no space to mention Claudine G. of Harvard here.)