Taking credit for another's work quite literally keeps our world running. I have heard Ted Kennedy speak. He is a champion of healthcare, organized labor, and other measures - while additionally owning some more dubious distinctions requiring eloquent defense. But do you think that the Op-Eds under his name, the floor speeches, are at all crafted by him? Hell no. This man cannot put two sentences together, forget a 6 paragraph articulation of the intricacies of foreign and domestic policy. His staff wrote it, he recited. That is plagarism, and in some cases, it may even save lives.
The dirty little secret is that we honestly don't care how the words are created, or what kind of work went into the discovery of an idea. We care who says it. Secondary and Graduate Schools teach otherwise, but then - go and write a press release that matters (which may have already been given to you with fill-in-the-blanks) - which you fax to a reporter, who then writes word for word what you sent. That-s plagarism and a bad version of the telephone game at once! And it informs us. Means to an end, I say.
Why must I attribute thoughts and ideas? If I play my own acoustic version of Regulate by Nate Dogg & Warren G, why do I have to say who wrote it? If I give someone a present, do I have to say who made it, who gave me the idea to give it? Insanity. I'll take credit for those things and more, thankyouverymuch. Because it was MY IDEA to perform these actions in the first place.
I'm not worried about credit. I'm worried about consequence. And if the right people don't say things, no one will listen, and we don't move forward as a society. But at least someone can sit around and be happy that they've got an answer nobody will know.