Originality?

Layman Pascal complains that IPS forum is dominated by quoting and commenting on other's ideas instead of being 'original.' I replied:

I don't see how one can "generate their own content" without reference to the social pool of content. It seems a rather modernist/individualist chimera akin to the GOP and capitalist emphasis on personal and intellectual property with the specious notion of rugged individualism. That is contraindicated to the more distributed P2P paradigm wherein we of course generate individual contributions but within that social commons from which we draw.


As to originality, I studied Shakespeare in college, often considered one of the most creative bards in English literature. Recall this from Sonnet 59:

"If there be nothing new, but that which is
Hath been before, how are our brains beguiled,
Which, labouring for invention, bear amiss
The second burden of a former child."

I used this as a horror plot device in this post.