Plagiarism, copyright infringement and stupid product names seem to be an ever increasing occurrence these days. It doesn’t matter where you turn or what article you read where you aren’t hearing about some high profile author or journalist ripping off borrowing some-one else’s content; or some company being sued for infringing on questionable patents; or Web 2.0 products with names that sound like a bad game of Scrabble.

In the past year or so more than a few high profile newspapers have fired journalists for some form of plagiarism to outright making up stories. We have an independent VoIP company being driven into bankruptcy over patents that could be questionable themselves. Then we have the bastardization of the English language in the hunt for company names just so they can sound cool.

Even in the blogging world the majority of blogs exist only as an exercise in the re-hashing of pre-existing words and thoughts. Success doesn’t always equate to originality regardless of the field of endeavor which is proven daily to anyone who reads through their RSS feed.

One has to wonder at some point through all this if we have exhausted the well of creativity. After all just how much creativity and original thought can we expect one civilization to have in a couple hundred year period. Sure we get the 60 Minute soundbites about this weeks idiot savant or the newest child prodigy but where are the Edison’s, the Stephen Hawking’s, the Bernard Shaw’s or the Darwin’s.

We decry plagiarism and infringements of any type but in the world of nanny states where we are being coddled through our daily lives is it any surprise that we are finding ourselves being sucked into the vacuum of repetitiveness. Original thought and new ideas abhor safety and security which has become the byword of our world today.

In our world of co-presence, instant worldwide publishing of our meanderings and corporate patent portfolios there isn’t time for the required mental fermentation of original thought. DaVinci did much of his work in secret, Ann Franks wrote hiding in an attic and Darwin was an elder before writing a book that would forever change the world. Our world now though doesn’t allow for that kind of time; nor does it allow for the creation of an atmosphere of risk which is in many cases a needed ingredient of originality.

We have become a society of people who unless they can get their information in the moment or spend their time pushing out their momentary thoughts for the world to read feel that they are wasting precious time. We no longer seem to be able to take time to think to any real depth - if it doesn’t happen in the moment then it is gone. A world where originality has become a subset of instaneous and short term mental stimulus.

When I think of things like this I am always reminded of the song Flowers are Red by Harry Chapin

And she said…
Flowers are red young man
Green leaves are green
There’s no need to see flowers any other way
Than they way they always have been seen

But the little boy said…
There are so many colors in the rainbow
So many colors in the morning sun
So many colors in the flower and I see every one

Well the teacher said.. You’re sassy
There’s ways that things should be
And you’ll paint flowers the way they are
So repeat after me…..

We are very quickly becoming a world that cannot do anything but live on it’s past glories and suck past innovation dry - leaving the well empty. We are becoming the boy who paints red flowers with green leaves.

Conversation Tags: technology, originality, ideas, plagiarism, copyrights