Still More Shit that Pisses Me Off
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781926891323
- Publish Date
- Nov 2012
- List Price
- $1.99
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
Pregnant men, paying stay-at-home moms, advertising, income tax deductions, people skills, boy books, speech codes, porn, god, testicular battery and tranquilizer guns, the Academy Awards, intelligent design and evolution …
Philosophy with an attitude.
Because the unexamined life is dangerous.
Note: All of the pieces in the Shit that Pisses Me Off series (4 volumes) have been anthologized in either Sexist Shit that Pisses Me Off (2nd edn) or Just … Think about It! (2nd edn), along with almost a hundred additional pieces (in each case), and both are available in eformat and paperback.
"Tittle’s pieces are atypical of philosophical writing in the best ways: of interest to non-specialists, yet instructive and profound, yet entertaining." Ron Cooper, Professor of Philosophy
"… a passionate, stylistically-engaging writer …" George, Amazon
About the author
Peg Tittle, feminist, writer, philosopher, is the author of What If...Collected Thought Experiments in Philosophy (2004) and Critical Thinking: An Appeal to Reason (2011). She is also the editor of Should Parents be Licensed? Debating the Issues (2004). Her articles and essays have been published in a number of North American magazines and journals and she has been a columnist for the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, The Philosophers' Magazine, and Philosophy Now. She is also the author of six screenplays. What Happened to Tom? is her first novel. She lives in Sundridge, Ontario.
Excerpt: Still More Shit that Pisses Me Off (by (author) Peg Tittle)
Dr. Frankenstein, meet Dr. Spock
Thanks to genetic research, we may soon see people making sure their kids are born-to-succeed, parents paying to guarantee their kids have the right stuff. I'm not talking about a straightened spine or a functional optic nerve. I'm talking about designer kids: those made with healthy bodies, intelligent minds, and perhaps a certain specific ability or two to boot.
First, success isn't happiness. Let's be clear about that at the start.
Second, having intelligence or ability is not nearly as important as knowing what to do with it. So success isn't necessarily goodness either.
Third, this ain't a meritocracy. Sure, there are certain attributes that are favoured, but as far as I can tell, intelligence and ability aren't among them. Sex is. Colour is. And a certain freedom from physical abnormality. And yes, tall men, especially those with deep voices, get more respect than short ones who squeak. But at best, these are necessary attributes. They are certainly not sufficient attributes.
Success more often depends on being in the right place at the right time. Have we found the good luck gene yet? Success also depends on who you know. The schmooze gene? And who you know often depends on how much money you have. In which case, the kids of people rich enough to design them don’t need to be designed.
The thing is this: only to the extent that our genes control us should we get excited about controlling them. Those advocating, and fearing, genetic engineering for its designer kids application seem to be forgetting that we are products of both nature and nurture. There are many people whose natural intelligence remained undeveloped for lack of encouragement or crippled because of excess criticism. There are many with great bodies who were not even allowed to try out for the team. How many Beethovens have we lost because a kid with musical ability was introduced to practice as punishment? How many recess geniuses were never told on career day about life as a diplomat?
True, if everyone's going to be creating tall, smart, white men, then we will experience loss of diversity—which is the kiss of death for any species. But we're way past kisses. As a species, we've been fucked for a long time.
To judge by what comes out of our education system, as well as what goes into it (listen to any grade one teacher), we don't have the nurture bit under control. At all. So why jump up and down about controlling the nature part?
Ah—because we don't have the nurture bit under control.
Editorial Reviews
"I’ve read and loved Peg Tittle’s essays before but I wondered… would I be as p***ed off by the same topics as her, with this new collection? AND I WAS! I find Peg Tittle to be a passionate, stylistically-engaging writer with a sharp eye for the hypocritical aspects of our society. Congrats.”
5/5 stars
George on Amazon
“Tittle’s pieces are atypical of philosophical writing in the best ways: of interested to non-specialists yet instructive, profound yet entertaining. Tittle has a pitch perfect sense of presenting difficult concepts understandably while avoiding condescension; she can challenge readers without overwhelming them and all the while respecting their intelligence.
“She also proves that good thinkers need not be wishy-washy and unable to offer solutions—a common and often warranted indictment of philosophers. In a culture in which public discourse too often reduces to hollering and sloganeering, Tittle’s work is a model of intellectual civility. She makes her views clear while demonstrating a voice of reason and integrity, not one of shrillness and volume.”
Ron Cooper, Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy
College of Central Florida