Free Republic May Have Caught McCain/Solzhenitsyn Plagiarism First

[kevinmc]

http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/18/769/18054/897/569634

by Karmic Spirit
Mon Aug 18, 2008 at 04:15:15 AM PDT

Yes, it's sad to say, that the nut-jobs over at FreeRepublic.com were actually the first to spot the similarities between McCain and Solzhenitsyn. Of course they would. They all love Solzhenitsyn and at the time, they all hated McCain. The year was 2005...

nd McCain had just published his latest book of embellished tales. A Freeper posted the reference to the Cross-in-the-Dirt story, and Freepers accepted it with, lets say, something less than enthusiasm

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1538054/posts

Among some of the responses are:

Do I sense a run for president coming up? Sorry if I'm too cynical.

Perhaps McCain is making obvious Christian statements to gain support for 2008.
----
Perhaps??? :-)

and of course:

This guy is so full of $hit his eyes are brown. He is a sellout RINO. I would not believe a word he says.

But my jaw hit the floor when I read this:

Hmmmm. Looks like McCain has been reading Solzhenitsyn.
From The Mayor's daily posts at FR's Finest and The Canteen from the devotional "Our Daily Bread" comes Sunday's reading...

World-famous Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was sent to a Siberian prison because he criticized communism. Languishing there under intolerable conditions year after year, he decided to end his life. But suicide, he firmly believed, would be against God's will. He thought it would be better for a guard to shoot him.

So at a public assembly of the prisoners, he sat in a front row, planning to get up and walk toward an exit, compelling a guard to kill him. But to his surprise, another prisoner sat down, blocking his exit. That unknown man leaned over and, to Solzhenitsyn's astonishment, drew a cross on the dirt floor.

Here's a direct link to that response:

Free Republic

[AllieB]

1. I thought Mein Kampf and Ann Coulter books was the extent of their reading list.

:shrug:

[ingac70]

2. I'm sure they think his lying is OK now...

that he is running for Pres.

[kevinmc]

7. Yes they do .... here's a post .....

from last night.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2063547/posts

[MadrasT]

9. Aw, crap...

I just snorted coffee out my nose again. This is priceless (FReeper comment):

"Those people at du are so deluded and hate filled you need a hazmat suit to venture in there. They are seriously deranged... It seemed like some sort of evil brainwashed cult, no logic, no discussion."

:bounce: We're deluded and deranged! :woohoo:

[YOY]

3. Who knew they could read?

Let alone Solzhenitsyn...

[Oregone]

4. This really doesn't look like plagiarism to me to be honest.

McCain's story was of two people on different sides using the symbol to unite as Christians, despite the differences. Their faith created a universal bridge that brought people together under a symbol of Jesus.

Solzhenitsyn story was about how one ragged man yearning for death found hope and encouragement through the symbol of faith, that was drawn by another prisoner. Such a symbol gave him a reason to live, instead of pursuing suicide.

Clearly, despite similar motifs, the actual points of the stories are drastically different. McCain's story is that Christianity can bring people together in incredible circumstances. Solzhenitsyn tells that Christianity can give hope and meaning to an otherwise desolate life.

With that said, I still find McCain's story to be absolute bullshit. It reminds me much more of stories Ive heard of Christian's drawing a half of a fish symbol in public, to be finished perhaps by another Christian, when they were in hiding and fearing persecution. The completion of the fish would let them recognize each other as Christians secretly so that they could pursue fellowship in God.


"Usage is described as a pointer to secret meetings during the period of persecution, a primitive password or handshake in the sand where when two meet each one supplies an arc, or simply a theological statement inscribed under trying circumstances and signifying a certain perseverance above all else."

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Biblical_Studies/Christianity/Christian_art/Primitive

[AspenRose]

5. A pattern of lying has been established

Ripping off cookie recipes
Ripping off Wikipedia
Ripping off Obama's answers in the "cone of silence"
Ripping off Solzhenitsyn

[Oregone]

6. Looked, he could of ripped off 100 different Christian authors

But you insist its Solzhenitsyn (who is knows of). But come on, as I pointed out, the THEMES of the two stories aren't even the same.

Of course its a lie, but I think people may be looking at the wrong source. Even if the "idea" was lifted from Solzhenitsyn, I would hardly call the execution of his usage of such an idea plagiarism.

[kevinmc]

10. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was a Favorite of McCain ....

He even wrote a Opinion in the NY SUN about him ....

http://www.nysun.com/opinion/solzhenitsyn-at-work/83117/

Here's what is being compared:

Senator John McCain (R-AZ), in a Christmas-themed December ad for his presidential campaign, told the following story:

"One night, after being mistreated as a POW, a guard loosened the ropes binding me, easing my pain. On Christmas, that same guard approached me, and without saying a word, he drew a cross in the sand. We stood, wordlessly, looking at the cross, remembering the true light of Christmas. I'll never forget that no matter where you are, no matter how difficult the circumstances, there will always be someone who will pick you up."


***************

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, recounting his experience in a Soviet gulag in The Gulag Archipelago, released in the United States in 1973. Luke Veronis, in The Sign of the Cross, recounts:

"Along with other prisoners, he worked in the fields day after day, in rain and sun, during summer and winter. His life appeared to be nothing more than backbreaking labor and slow starvation. The intense suffering reduced him to a state of despair.

On one particular day, the hopelessness of his situation became too much for him. He saw no reason to continue his struggle, no reason to keep on living. His life made no difference in the world. So he gave up.

Leaving his shovel on the ground, he slowly walked to a crude bench and sat down. He knew that at any moment a guard would order him to stand up, and when he failed to respond, the guard would beat him to death, probably with his own shovel. He had seen it happen to other prisoners.

As he waited, head down, he felt a presence. Slowly he looked up and saw a skinny old prisoner squat down beside him. The man said nothing. Instead, he used a stick to trace in the dirt the sign of the Cross. The man then got back up and returned to his work.

As Solzhenitsyn stared at the Cross drawn in the dirt his entire perspective changed. He knew he was only one man against the all-powerful Soviet empire. Yet he knew there was something greater than the evil he saw in the prison camp, something greater than the Soviet Union. He knew that hope for all people was represented by that simple Cross. Through the power of the Cross, anything was possible.

Solzhenitsyn slowly rose to his feet, picked up his shovel, and went back to work. Outwardly, nothing had changed. Inside, he had received hope."

[Oregone]

12. I'm aware of what is being compared (as I am of his fondness for the man)....

The Christmas ad is similar in the theme of hope (although not details) despite also using the symbol to show the universal connection/recognition to a divine holiday, but his spin at the SB forum is absolutely different in many key aspects as he told it. And the funny thing is, it is likely that even Solzhenitsyn could have lifted this. Have you never heard of stories of persecuted Christian trading secret signs to recognize each other in circumstances like this? You can trace these stories back to 100 AD or so. From the TEXT of the two stories (Christmas or SB Forum), calling out any plagiarism is really silly.

[kevinmc]

8. This person kinda agrees with some of what you say ....

To: Pinkbell

Leftists are longing for a “Swift Boat” moment.... it’s perfectly plausible that such “cross” events have occurred a number of times in Gulag and prison camp situations — one would think that Christians in such circumstances would all think about when and if they should share such a moment with another Christian.

I have no idea how often it does occur, but drawing a cross in dirt or sand when that is the only possible communication available to two Christians under such extreme circumstances, well, it’s quite possible that there are such occurences on many occasions across the various Gulag and other prison camps run by vicious commie pigs.

Also in McCain’s favor is that the Solzhenitsyn story involved a fellow prisoner and the McCain story involved a guard, so the 2nd story is not any obvious copy. Could it have been “inspired” by the Solzehnitsyn story? Certainly conceivable, but without any actual evidence there is no reason to assume that McCain’s story did not occur as described. He certainly deserves the benefit of any doubt.



33 posted on Sunday, August 17, 2008 20:57:21 by Enchante (Obama-cons: Trying to fool America, one media dupe at a time!)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2063547/posts?page=33#33

[Oregone]

11. Ah, but I don't think you should give McCain "the benefit of any doubt."

I just think people should be looking for other sources when screaming about plagiarism, because the two themes of the stories are not even the same, nor are the details. The cross in the sand motif (while in persecution), is all they share, but its used differently in the two stories.

I'm not sure why that's so incredibly complicated to see.

Something funny to point out...if one of McCain's enemies was a Christian, and not some Godless communist, doesn't that imply that his enemies were possibly fighting for something besides "evil" in Vietnam? Doesn't his story imply that perhaps these Christian's who chose to fight against him were also fighting according to their Christian ideals? What if they were fighting in Vietnam for freedom? Or to contrast, what if both McCain the Christian and the Vietnamese Christian were fighting for the opportunity to oppress the people of Vietnam, according to their Christian ideals. :)

[sinkingfeeling]

13. Andrew Sullivan at Atlantic.com has a column about this today.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/08/the-dirt-in-the.html

"I know I'm on a hiding to nothing on this. There is no way to know for sure what happened between two people in a prison camp in an incident to which no one else was a witness more than a quarter century ago. And it's perfectly possible that all of it is true, if muddled. But when a candidate tells a story that doesn't really add up with his previous accounts, and when he runs a campaign ad based on that story whose imagery is closer to someone else's account than his own, when a life changing moment is forgotten for a quarter of a century until a critical campaign when an appeal to conservative Christians was vital, the question is worth fleshing out - and I will gladly air any evidence that emerges in McCain's defense."

He's says McSame never mentioned this until Mark Salter's book, co-written with McCain, "Faith Of My Fathers" was published in 1999.