That being said, this Shia LaBeouf plagiarism scandal has captivated my full attention. To recap: Shia allegedly copied a BBC staff writer's review of a Nirvana album as his own review for Cage's new album. Pretty casual stuff, right? Wrong. Plagiarism is the marijuana of legality: a gateway drug. Shia went on to allegedly completely rip off comic creator, Daniel Clowes. It wasn't a 7th grade attempt at sneaking in passages from Wikipedia to your book report, either. Shia made a short film, "HowardCantour.com" that paralleled Clowes' "Justin M. Damiano" storyline "beat-for-beat" (according to MTV.com). Which, in case you were wondering, is not kosher. You can't just steal someone's work and pass it off as your own. I'm not sure what Shia is going through-- amensia, Brit Spears 2007 breakdown, a little Macaulay Culkin drug thang-- but something is fishy. Or maybe this is one giant publicity scheme about the lack of originality or the right to express yourself through already existing works in pop culture today. It's probably some version of the latter and we are just pawns in the joke. Stick it to the man, Shia. Whatever.
But the real kicker of this entire scandal is Shia's version of public apologies. Now I know I just ranted about plagiarism, but this whole thing is such bogus that the his tweet apologies are honestly hysterical. See here and laugh along.
See, it is hysterical. Sure, it's a little offensive to plagiarize your public apologies in regards to your earlier plagiarism. But honestly, take a second and think about the statement that Shia making-- regardless of the offense, saying "I'm sorry" is such a cliche.
Please stop and close your jaw. I am not, by any means, saying do not apologize when you screw up. If you don't apologize for being an asshole, then you're a crappy human. But the reality of our world, the world of high speed, high tech, selfishness, is that apologies come fast, hard and often.
How many times can Biebs apologize for being a hot mess? How many times did Kobe apologize for cheating on his wife? (because we all know he did... Vanessa's big, fat diamond screams "I'm sorry for being a cheating bastard") Reese Witherspoon got crazy and arrested, apologized and returned back to top celeb status. I can't help but wonder, will there come a day when, no matter how sincere, "I'm sorry" just won't cut it?
To be honest, I really hope not. There are some days, some times when you just really screw up and all you have to say for yourself is "I am so sorry". I used to be one of those chronically annoying kids who said "sorry" for literally anything but one day, Steph whipped her head around to me cowering in the backseat and said "if you keep saying sorry all of the time, it will not mean anything anymore". That was the day I learned that apologies are more than "I'm sorry" . Apologizing is about accepting and acknowledging your wrong, admitting to it, admitting to being a crappy human, and then asking/hoping for the opportunity to put a bandaid on the wound and let things heal before the hurt party throws in the towel on the relationship.
Truth be told, I screw up on the reg. I always want to be perfect, always desperate to avoid disappointing the people in my world. But I fail over and over again. Luckily, I have some incredibly patient people in my world who tell me when I suck, tell me why I suck, and have enough faith in me that I will continue work harder to suck less. For that, I thank you.
Whether you are a brand new 21 year old (HBD Berg) or already retired in the Keys, be wary of the cliched apology. If you are sorry, say it. If you're not, don't. If you royally mess up and can't even believe you are such a terrible human and you should be banned from the world indefinitely, say that. Be dramatic if it's dramatic. But if you forgot to swap out an empty TP roll for a new one and your roommate throws it at your big, dumb head, put up a sticky note next to the roll holder for your big dumb head to remember next time and move on. The most offensive part of apologies is sulking, which only continues to punish everyone around you... Then you're the pain in the ass who screwed up and won't quit pouting. You messed up, you don't get a pity party.
And if nothing else, my dear readers struggling with the inevitability of screwing up during your twentysomethings, steer clear of Shia, but @Son_of_Fratter has some solid advice:
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