Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg, the German Defence minister in Angela Merkel’s Government, has finally resigned. The reason? The newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung has made it public that Zu Guttenberg had plagiarised part of his doctoral dissertation: a staggering 20% of its 475 pages. Zu Guttenberg, a very popular politician, has taken his time to resign, as Merkel has supported him throughout this crisis, downplaying the importance of the offence committed.
I’m personally appalled by Merkel’s support, as a man who cheats to this extent can hardly be a reliable, honest politician (is that an oxymoron?). Yet, the obvious reason why I’m writing this entry today is to teach my students about the very serious consequences that plagiarising (= copying text from unidentified sources, pretending it’s yours) may have: it may ruin your career many years after the events. Just consider: The now ex-Minister stole someone else’s ideas, his or her intellectual property, and for a doctoral dissertation, which is, precisely, the kind of exercise in which you prove your value as a thinker of original thoughts.
Martin Luther King was guilty of exactly the same offence and, somehow, there’s a tendency to exonerate him because he compensated for this with many good deeds. Merkel seems to think that this is what Zu Guttenberg will do too –not become a second Luther King but just continue his brilliant political career. My view is that the sins committed by saints are sins nonetheless, and the sins committed by less than saints are also sins. We don’t expel students from the university for plagiarising (at least not at UAB) and I don’t think Zu Guttenberg should be ruined for life. Yet, plagiarising is a little bit like infidelity: you may forgive an unfaithful partner but can you ever trust him or her again? Fully?
Zu Guttenberg justified himself, quite predictably, claiming that he was under great pressure, had reached the end of his tether and had acted out of despair (if I had a million dollars for every time I’ve been given the same excuse…). What worries me is that this is part of that widespread view of education in which cheating matters more than learning. He tricked a serious German university into awarding him a title he didn’t deserve, surely like many others that have gone undetected, yes. For, typically, plagiarisers think that being clever is the same as being intelligent. This is where they all fail.