A Culture Doesn’t Achieve Things. Individuals Do.
The most recent plagiarism scandal goes beyond the stolen written word
“...how are we meant to generate anything genuinely new, anything that might bring humanity a step closer to a better, more just world, if all we see, and all we are, are copies of copies, reheated over and over again, stripped of nuance, soul, and humanness?”
This excerpt is from a recent essay published at the Substack publication Noösphere. Its author, Katie Jgln, is currently dealing with an artist’s nightmare. Her work was not only plagiarized by a fellow writer on Substack, but the plagiarized work helped the unlawful writer become a top ranked destination on the platform.
Jgln’s account of the situation and her thoughts on the matter are worth the read. I don’t agree with much of her worldview or philosophy, but I fully stand by the actions she’s taken to attempt justice regarding the situation of her stolen intellectual property.
“There Are No Weak Artists”
I’ve been keeping up with the fallout. Many Substackers are publicly showing support for Jgln and Noösphere. But one response to the situation gave me pause. I’ve decided to address it because it deals with an ideology all too common these days, the doctrine of identity politics, and the response shows the danger in handing over one’s mind to it.
The Substacker posted a Note regarding the plagiarized work, and part of their response said:
“...this was just devastating to learn about. I was so excited to see a fellow South Asian woman [the plagiarist] make waves here. I aspired to be like her, and was envious of her too—of her writing, her ideas, her accolades and accomplishments, the beautiful, intellectually rich life she had curated for the internet to see. To think that I’ve been played such a fool… disappointed doesn’t even cover it.”
It is a good thing the poster now understands the foolish nature of their mental missteps—and has promised “To never blindly trust a person you only have a parasocial connection with.”
Artists should not be chiefly concerned with identifying with those who look like them. Artists should not be concerned with being a copy of someone else. And above all, artists should not be envious. Envy is for the weak, and to quote Tennessee Williams, “There are no weak artists. Not for long.”
Be Bullish
In the age of identity politics, characteristics that have nothing to do with virtue, like outer appearance and sexual orientation, are mistaken for virtue. These outer characteristics have taken the place of inner characteristics that do involve the virtues, but you can’t fake a good soul and spirit. The only way to cultivate these intangible goods is from within.
When we see the failure of one person who looks like us as a failure of a culture, we make a grave error. We put the cart before the horse. Naturally, mayhem ensues, followed by the death of movement, of progress, of productivity.
American culture is known for its courageous and adventurous spirit. That isn’t thanks to the culture of the country collectively waking up one day and declaring itself courageous or adventurous. American culture is bullish because it’s a country made of bulls—Amelia Earhart, who was the first woman to officially fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, the NASA team, who were instrumental in landing our astronauts on the moon, Frederick Douglass, who bravely declared himself a free individual, and Sojourner Truth, who asked a poignant question, “Ain’t I a Woman?”, that told others to call her the same as Douglass—free and equal in the eyes of the law.
Even American fictional characters, like Rocky Balboa, embody the fearless, free human spirit. Without these individuals, both real and made up, American culture would not be the enduring, influential heavyweight that it is.
Just as the U.S. Constitution is only as strong as the constitutions of American citizens dedicated to upholding it, a culture is only as strong as the individuals within it who commit themselves to hard, virtuous work, whether by labor of body or of mind. If a culture is to be considered strong, there can be no shortcuts to self-mastery among individuals associated with that culture.
Here’s The Truth
It is dangerous when artists absorb messaging that tells them to gravitate to those that look like them. A pillar of artistry has always been breaking out of the bubble of conformity. Even if someone doesn’t break out of their hometown, as an artist deepens his or her roots, if they’re artists worth a damn, their thoughts, and therefore their creations, do break free.
What if Karouac never took a road trip? What if Hemingway never traveled to Cuba, where he was struck with inspiration for The Old Man and the Sea? What if Sam Phillips never recorded Howlin’ Wolf because the producer had a hiccup about hanging out with those more melanin-rich than he?
Those upset about one of Substack’s fast-growing newsletters being the source of plagiarized work should be worried. It’s happening everywhere. Not too long ago I received an email from a publication who had to issue an apology because one of its writers passed off an article as his own even though he scraped the copy from the web.
My last piece was about a fake AI band who gained over 1 million listeners by barely repackaging Kansas’ big hit “Dust in the Wind” to “Dust on the Wind.”
Recently, former Harvard president Claudine Gay resigned after numerous accusations of plagiarism were leveled against her, with one individual documenting more than 40 examples of plagiarism found in the writings of her academic work.
Yes, artists should be mad. But the plagiarist's skin tone or culture should have absolutely nothing to do with it. It should have to do with the ethics violation of the plagiarist, the implied renunciation of their reasoning and capable mind, and the resulting implications for a world already reeling from repackaged content and a plethora of other plagiarized works.
Here’s the truth:
The bad news is there are a lot of artists out there right now who identify far more with some type of shared culture rather than their own independent thoughts. We see this with large, location-specific ones like the South Asian culture referenced in the concerned poster-writer’s note, or with manufactured micro-cultures like the mommy culture of today’s phone-addicted, procreating millennials.
If skin color, political affiliation, sexual orientation, the sexes, or socioeconomic background matters more to the artist than the art itself, the person is not an artist. The person is a propagandist.
The good news is, just because collectivist thinking regarding achievements is a prevailing mentality, doesn’t mean it’s the truth. The truth doesn’t care about consensus. The truth doesn’t care about anything. The truth simply is.
Austrian school economist Ludwig von Mises said, “All rational action is in the first place individual action. Only the individual thinks. Only the individual reasons. Only the individual acts.”
Individuals will go on creating. Individuals will go on achieving. And various cultures will benefit from these individuals if those cultures are made up of (mostly) smart people.
Merit is in the Mind
Hopefully the person who is sad over the plagiarist also being South Asian doesn’t allow this discovery to hold them back. Would they even be concerned about this at all if the plagiarist was a white American or African-American?
Hopefully, the commenter goes on to be recognized for their work, and not because they just so happen to be Asian—but because the craft and message of their works are worthy of praise, celebration, and attention.
The heroes and great works we love depict and celebrate individuals who didn’t slip inconspicuously into the mass of their surrounding world or lineage as a copy. The heroes and characters we love and celebrate through time often embraced their unique individuality (despite pleas for the opposite from those closest to them) and transcended their own cultures and acted as a bridge between countless individuals and those from their own lives.
Art expands our world, it shouldn’t shrink it.
The act of plagiarism is color blind and it does not discriminate. It is not appropriate to put a culture, color, or any other physical characteristic on it that has nothing to do with the act itself. It is imperative people stop assuming that because someone “looks” like them, that means they’re automatically virtuous.
Let’s focus on being artists who think outside the elementary school crayon box. Let’s focus on artists who create works outside of that crayon box.
Let us remember, it isn’t about the color of the pen, but the way we wield it when we put it to paper and bleed.
Artists come in all shades and hues, but the blood they spill for the sake of their art looks no different than that of their fellow creators. It looks no different than that of those who we make the art for.
Make art and celebrate art that says this: Merit lies in the mind, not the face.
May we spend our lives embodying that message.
Author’s Note: Due to the fact that I was unable to identify the gender of the lamenting poster, I used plural pronouns when referring to the person. Normally, I’d default to the classical “he” for reference, but the tone felt off when I phrased portions of the essay that way. The decision was a stylistic/editorial one, not a politically-motivated one. Thank you for reading!
I think I'm in love Rebecca, though don't take it personally since I'm an alpha male, and unencumbered by the thought process.
Aside from your obvious courage in confronting the contentious social issues, you mark a couple key words, merit being one of them. The mere mention of it will send the left into convulsions, since the absence of merit is the heart and soul of the collectivist, whose ideology is the reverse of individualism.
"Pare down and simplify" is the edict of the survivor. I've been using the word "bubble" a lot lately to describe some of the lunacy propagated by the social warriors.
People are highly programmable, worse yet they insist their programming is some sort of organic process; maybe they're right, but only to the extent of being human. The rest of it is a purely human desire of one to have authority over another. A lot of blood has been shed over that fact.
Yes, there is a Constitution of the United States of America and a return to that, and the rule of law has merit, and so therefore the enemy of the collectivist.
That we all live within our bubbles shouldn't mean we can't expand them.
And if anyone should take offense to your bubble, well, we have your back.