Joel Stein in Time–Cheating: It's All-American ”” And It's Great!

We need to stop pretending we are honest and instead be honest about cheating. The ethical battle of our time is about the fairness of medical technology: genetic engineering, cloning, steroids, plastic surgery. We are O.K. with Viagra, LASIK and Paxil because they restore basic human functions, but we get really uncomfortable when people improve themselves by buying their pert breasts or giant pecs. It’s no different from the original objections to wearing makeup, dyeing one’s hair, and oiling up before an ancient Greek wrestling match ”” which would not have been necessary if ancient Greek men had had makeup and hair dye.

Our moral superiority about our naturally thin lips or un-home-runny arms is nothing more than a silly, momentary discomfort with technology improving our bodies, which will go away when these procedures are cheaper and safer. I for one will proudly take steroids when they finally make ones that don’t ruin your health, necessitate a shot, or require you to keep going to the gym after taking them. I pretty much stopped caring what I looked like once I got married.

I have long been an advocate of cheating. It started when my dad fooled an IRS auditor by comparing different vintages of phone book, finding an out-of-business furrier and getting me to use my Apple IIe to create a fake receipt to prove a false fur-coat donation. I’m a big fan of the statute of limitations. While some would call that tax fraud, I thought of it as preventing animal cruelty.

Read it all.

Posted in * International News & Commentary, America/U.S.A., Ethics / Moral Theology, Theology

2 comments on “Joel Stein in Time–Cheating: It's All-American ”” And It's Great!

  1. Katherine says:

    “Some would call that tax fraud?” There’s no “some” about it. I do hope this article is satire and not serious.

  2. magnolia says:

    too funny and sadly true. thanks for posting.