Hillary Clinton The "Accomplished Parrot"- A Deeper Look Into Plagarism & Language

[KittyWampus]

The charges of plagarism intrigue me on various levels. As both an artist and a qabalist, I find the concept, establishment and enforcement of Intellectual Property rights has always been interesting and worthy of discussion. Especially as concerns the use of Universal Symbols as they appear as Images & Language.

Looking for a deeper discussion, I logged of DU and was lucky enough to find the following post:


TheMisfortuneTeller (See profile | I'm a fan of TheMisfortuneTeller)

Most people learn language -- after the earliest period of developmental infancy -- either by asking others what words mean or by simply accepting words as unalterable physical signs without further inquiry. George Orwell said that this stems from "the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes." Those like the Bushes and Clintons who only wish to sub-rationally manipulate the linguistically credulous simply cannot abide the competition from someone like Senator Obama who clearly knows language well enough to provide an excellent example of its effective use.

Professor I. A. Richards called this phenomenon (after Joseph Conrad) "the accomplished parrot" syndrome. People train parrots to "speak" (meaning, "utter noises that sound almost like words") by rewarding the animal with something to eat every time it successfully produces a noise that sounds vaguely like "Polly wants a cracker." Yet, no one has ever seen or heard of a parrot spitting out a peanut in disgust, swearing: "Damn it! I SAID I wanted a CRACKER!" Most people accept and blindly mimic the words others use with little more reflection than a -- normally better -- trained bird.

Given the abysmal level of almost non-existent language study -- either foreign or "native" English -- in American schools, it comes as no surprise when the political parrots keep sqwawking ignorant denunciataions of Senator Obama while failing to offer us anything thoughtfully cogent of their own.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/the-wolfson-plagiarism-at_b_87209.html

[KittyWampus]

1. kick for a broader view

[CorpGovActivist]

2. .