On the back of a bit I saw on the BBC News this morning on plagiarism, I have decided to encourage people to fail. Go ahead – put the weight down, let the world crumble a bit. I bet that, surprise surprise, the world doesn’t implode if you’re supposedly slacking off. In fact, I bet the world becomes a bit better because you’re not driving yourself to destruction under impossible standards. So sayeth the nearly recovered perfectionist, so all should consider. 😉

Well, I should give credit to friends on Facebook for making me decide to blog on this subject, because they make wonderful points. One argument that comes up for why plagiarism is acceptable is because theft is rampant and ignored – we (collective we, not specific we!) steal music, movies, etc – why not steal ideas? Another argument brought up is laziness – why do the work if it’s already there, or if we can pay someone to do it? On that, I must say I’m bemused on the so-called expert essay writing services… which steal like whoa, and lead to some bemusing end results.

The main point that attracted my attention thus far is thus – that we’re scared to death to fail. That we’d rather lie, steal, and cheat than have to admit defeat, or that they need help. I can actually empathise strongly on this point – while I generally have avoided the aforementioned Trinity of Terror (har har), I instead would not turn work in. It wasn’t because I was bullying myself, but in my head, the assignment is supposed to be complete. Therefore, I’d not turn it in if it wasn’t complete, even if I spent ages on the assignment. I still can’t explain the why to this, mind, but…

I think the point that I’m trying to get to, and tripping myself up on, is that too many people carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. We’re expected to do more and more and more and more, and I’m sorry – there’s only so much we can do before we break outselves. And as it were, being broken is rapidly becoming the norm – there’s an increase in psychological issues, sleep issues, you name it. Even obesity is symptomatic of this – we don’t eat well because we supposedly lack time to do so. Or we don’t eat well because we need a ‘treat’. And that’s not even bringing in how we moralize against eating, drinking, smoking, living… that’s definitely added pressure that already overstressed beings don’t need!

I think the point, long and short, is that we can’t all be #1. We can’t all be winners, and not being a winner doesn’t automatically make one a loser. Screwing other people over, however, makes you a total loser… so, y’know… don’t do it. 😉

Ramble ends!

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