Say it again?

 

A month back, a friend of mine who has a poetry page on facebook had her poems, as well as mine and another friend "stolen" by someone. Posted the poems on his own wall and pretended it was his. The funny thing about it is, the poems' tone and theme were obviously written from a woman's point of view. And he was a man. :) When confronted about it, he has the audacity to deny the accusations.  And it got me to thinking. In this world, driven mostly now by technology and social media, it is easy to "copy" -"paste" works by others.  Less or no parameters are set on intellectual rights much less credit the original writer. 

I have some acquaintances also who like to string along a quote or two or put in inspirational words, change some of it a bit and then post it as status and pretend it was their original idea in the first place. Like it is a Eureka moment.   When you're a voracious reader, you would know the quotes and who wrote them and know lines from famous authors, celebrities and inspirational speakers. You'd spot the copycats right away. And when people praise these posts,  they're even proud and act in false humility. At first it seemed okay. I even thought it was hilarious as the hodgepodge of words doesn't seem to make any sense, at all.  But as the days went on, I got exasperated. It is because I have conversations with them. And mind you, you can tell a person's command of the English language or their train of thoughts  by the way they converse with you. I am not saying I am an expert of it nor that I am being a smart aleck.   But to put it succinctly, it is an insult. Plagiarism to the nth degree. Put these people on an extemporaneous debate and they'll never be able to put in such terse, comprehensive and oh so "wow" words.


And you say, what the heck am I complaining about here where I could just have directly confronted the person.  I could have done so, many times. If I were a rude person I could, as easily,  point them out. But, I guess I am a coward. And I don't have the heart to break someone's pride. Even if they're deserving. I took the less stressful way. I stopped reading their posts. However, I have made a resolution to slowly tell them. But would it have the result I wanted? Or could it be that they'd just deny?  Does blunt honesty really does the job? Or would it create a bigger mess?


These people can fool a lot and may take pride at having all the adulation, the countless "Likes" and praises.  I call them the Mutual Adulation Society. Scratching each others' itches er ego. 


It is a matter of Integrity. For in the end, when the curtain of farce is lifted and they're found guilty of fraud, who now is the bigger fool? 

( pictures courtesy of we heart it)