We are on a new witch hunt. It seems like we are discovering “plagiarists” at the rate of one every two weeks or so. Most recently, it was the turn of Bradford Washburn, director emeritus of the Boston Science Museum, to be raked over the coals.
Among the most prominent authors recently hunted down are Stephen Ambrose and Doris Kearns Goodwin. Ambrose was found to have neglected–are you ready? Ask the children to leave the room!–to put quotation marks around several passages he copied from the books of others, although he did footnote them.
Goodwin similarly strayed.
These offences, not trivial but far from murderous, unleashed a torrent of criticism. The mildest was by Boston University history professor Thomas Glick, who stated: “Ambrose is a scholar who has promoted a public image that equates himself with wholesome, patriotic American values, so ultimately his self-promotion and hubris became primary, the accuracy of his research secondary.”
I do not wish to make light of plagiarism. The integrity of scholarship requires that sources be acknowledged, but we need some sense of proportion.
If one has written a shelf-full of books–nine over the last seven years in the case of Ambrose–and one erred in a handful of passages in them, it calls for a slap on the wrist, not public condemnation. Yes, it does soil the purity of scholarship, but it does not even comes close to endangering it. Above all, the sinners should be allowed to come clean and have their good names restored.
Some years back, I invited nine professors who study religion to a mini-conference. From it I learned that practically all religions have institutionalized mechanisms for restoring sinners to full standing. (The conference’s deliberations have been published in a book simply called “Repentance.”)
I found it particularly illuminating that religious repentance entails showing true remorse and doing penance (say fasting), but most people overlook the third element: restructuring one’s life. In most religions, before one is fully absolved one has to lead a repentant life. One cannot sin all week long, ask forgiveness on Sunday, and then repeat the cycle the following week.
However, if one does follow the straight and narrow, one can be fully restored to good membership in religious communities.
There is nothing like this in our civil society. Those who stray cannot find institutionalized ways to work themselves back into society’s good graces.
Often, TV anchors, professors, athletes, elected officials and others who offend are fired and remain, in effect, excommunicated. Professor Joe Ellis was a highly regarded, Pulitzer Prize-winning history professor at Mt. Holyoke College, where he taught with great distinction for nearly 30 years. Recently, he was found to have made up a tour of duty in Vietnam. Although he apologized profusely and repeatedly, and nobody has questioned the validity of the extensive research in his highly regarded books, he was suspended for one year without pay, a loss of something like $94,000, and had his endowed chair at least temporarily revoked. From a highly sought after professor, he has become a persona non grata.
We need to find ways for people to make amends, express their remorse, and if they stick to the straight and narrow for, say, seven years, we shall stop bugging them for the misbegotten mistakes in their pasts–at least those of us who never strayed across any line.
