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So long, Christopher

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I meant to publish this obituary earlier.  I see it has since been revised.  Christopher Hitchens managed to embed himself in American society and with his ascerbic wit find ways to skewer it that few other contemporary American journalists seemed capable of doing.  I thought his support for the Iraq war absurd, and it led to a breach between him and the liberal media, but in recent years he seemed to find favor again with his caustic attacks on Sarah Palin, the Tea Party and Conservatism in general.

I've enjoyed his op-ed pieces over the years, if not his books.  I thought it was presumptuous of him to feel he had reached the same "power of facing" as Orwell over the situation in Iraq.  Still, he certainly had the "power" of a good argument, even up to his last days. 

His positions remind me a lot of Thomas Paine.  Not surprisingly he was a big fan of Paine.  His critical examination of religion and its influence on politics at times appears straight out of The Age of Reason.   Unfortunately, now as then, we have been unable to come to terms with it in any meaningful way.  He will be missed.

Comments

  1. avrdsDecember 26, 2011 at 3:54 PM

    Only a few corrections at the end....

    But then he was a difficult person to pin down, even if those exact details appended were probably easy enough to source if they had fact checkers like in the old days.

    I liked Hitchens simply because he was one of the last really smart public figures. Didn't have to agree with him, and he went out of his way to be disagreeable, to enjoy a good argument and a well educated mind. I wanted to read his autobiography when it came out last year, but haven't had the time. I'm sure I will at some point.

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  2. James FergusonDecember 26, 2011 at 4:06 PM

    Should be a fun read. The news media has been sorely lacking intelligent commentators. I got a kick out of watching this odd segment between Hitch and Hannity.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=We7DyKWw61I&feature=related

    Hitch should have known better than to go on a show like this, but he still managed to get his points across and a few digs in as well.

    ReplyDelete
  3. avrdsDecember 26, 2011 at 4:12 PM

    I used to subscribe to the Nation when he was a regular contributor. I used to love his columns in those days. I even read a few of his contributions to Vanity Fair. Never boring, I guess that's what could finally be said about him. And still writing from his death bed in the hospital, which astounds me.

    ReplyDelete
  4. TripplerDecember 27, 2011 at 10:02 PM

    Hitch was a very enigmatic character. Wish I could have met him at least once. I'm sure we could have had a few interesting exchanges of ideas. While I liked him a lot, I know that he would have heard the words "SOB" or maybe taken a jab or two on the noggin from me. And yes, he was NEVER boring.

    Will be sorely missed for sure.

    ReplyDelete

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