Archive for the ‘christopher hitchens’ tag
The Problem with Politics #
Though I think Mr. Hitchen’s remarks aren’t much truer today than they are at any time during any campaign, I am tempted to agree with this point:
It is cliché, not plagiarism, that is the problem with our stilted, room-temperature political discourse. It used to be that thinking people would say, with at least a shred of pride, that their own convictions would not shrink to fit on a label or on a bumper sticker. But now it seems that the more vapid and vacuous the logo, the more charm (or should that be “charisma”?) it exerts.
The Human Cost of War #
In Part 2 of David Brooks’s 2007 Sidneys, I found an excellent story from the too-often drunk and strident Christopher Hitchens.
Hitchens had supported the American invasion of Iraq, and his writings saying so were part of what convinced Mark Daily to enlist. When Hitchens learned of Daily’s death “in theater” he felt the expected doubt and regret.
This Vanity Fair story is about Hitchens’s efforts to work through his feelings, and will probably make you cry. Well, at least it made me cry.