PEN-L message, re: myth of the self-made man

Jim Devine asked,

>Tom, since when do you examine sites that sell term papers to student
>plagiarists?

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 crit essay by Neil Hertz on the moral instruction of punishing plagiarism. Hertz didn't say so but one might see an almost Franklinesque tone to the discourse on plagiarism.

There are further 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 the proverbial level, the student who buys one of those term papers is violating the principle of character building that Benjamin prescribes. But at the structural level, the essay itself is a veritable whirlpool 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 himself to set an example for others so that their citation may elevate 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 question whether 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 or misleading myth. 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 is through 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 means of 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 from a book published by a Washington public relations firm. All three were 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 work
for them. The useful man in business -- and the laborer is a man of business
in his relations with his employer -- succeeds in making himself efficient
and still more successful in proportion as he sees opportunities and
embraces them. If these involve his rising early in the morning, he rises
early; if they mean that he must sit up late at night, he sits up late at
night. He lends his hand to the work that is before him, wherever it is and
whenever 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 in
County Tyrone, Ireland, ten years ago and came to this country without an
acquaintance to welcome him anywhere in all its broad limits, He began work
as a mechanic at 25 cents an hour for the Cramp company and has risen
steadily 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 the
times. Within less than seven years he went back to British waters in charge
of one of the swiftest and finest of the " ocean greyhounds," the steamship
St. Paul, built by the Cramps. From the very beginning of his connection
with the yard, he worked overtime and his willingness in that respect with
his intelligence, strength and skill, brought him rapid advancement."

3. "Mr. Tucker is a well-equipped native American, having had, before he
entered the shop, training at one of the leading colleges of the land and
having served in the shops with the commonest day laborers and having risen
to his present conspicuous and useful office through his own inherent
aptness and sterling qualities of application and energy. He is a ready
reliance to the masters and men of the yard in more ways than can be defined
in the duties he is expected daily to discharge because of his rare
adaptability of tact and skill. He is a bright and patriotic American in the
prime of young manhood, frank, courageous, generous. a man who convinces you
is thinking well of what he says and is never careless as to the impression
he would convey. The judgment of such a man is entitled to respect."

Tom Walker