Courtesy of VanityFair.com
I’ve come late to appreciating the work, charm and polemic of Christopher Hitchens.
A few months ago, a friend directed me to the video of him debating the purpose of religion, with ex-prime minister Tony Blair. I was bowled over by Hitch’s articulate, cogent arguments. I ended up feeling slightly sorry for Tony Blair who struggled against the mightier intellect. I have never met Hitch, nor read any of his books. I did start buying Vanity Fair after watching him. I read his regular contributions for style, structure and clues as what exactly he was doing with words to make them so convincing.
Whether or not you agree with Christopher Hitchens, he was, and will continue to be, a person of influence. He was an atheist who believed not just that religion was myth but that it was a poisonous myth, dangerous to mankind. That’s a ‘stand back in shock’ argument. He called Mother Theresa “a lying, thieving Albanian dwarf” Whoa, hang on a minute mate, you can’t say that about a potential saint! But he just did. As I reel back in horror, he backs up his statements with historical and political references. He knew exactly what he was talking about. It takes an independent spirit and courage, some might say foolhardy courage, to say what you really think and not worry about offending or upsetting other people.
I think if I’d ever met him, I would have been terrified of Christopher Hitchens. I would probably have looked a bit like poor old Tony did in that debate. But from afar, I suggest he is an example towards which we older adults can aspire. He was honest, forthright, heroic and, in the midst of his greatest challenging statements, witty.
I have lived much of my life trying to please other people, keeping the peace and being diplomatic. Sometimes it felt necessary to keep a job or resolve a family conflict. As a society we’ve become used to political correctness. Has the pressure of not offending anyone made us, as a society, timid? I think it has. Do we put up with unfair situations because we don’t want to be seen as trouble-makers? I think we do.
As we get older, it feels easier to not make a fuss, let sleeping dogs lie, take the easy road and all those other feather-bed cliché sayings. What would happen if all baby-boomers stood tall and voiced real, deep felt opinions? What if we felt as strongly as Hitch that our wisdom and experience should inform and influence the current and next generation? How might it change society?
I’m coming to the conclusion that in whatever time I have left, I want to say what I really think; to be who I truly am; to be unafraid.
Christopher Hitchens said about closed minds:
“I want to live my life taking the risk, all the time, that I don’t know anything like enough, that I haven’t understood enough, that I can’t know enough, that I’m always hungrily operating on the margins of a potentially great harvest of future knowledge and wisdom – and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Thank you Hitch for being you. I’m going to buy and read your books, listen to your arguments, learn, keep an open mind, come to conclusions and challenge anyone who disagrees with me. I’m not sure about the name-calling. I might have to work up to that.
Christopher Hitchens 1949-2011
