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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 01/31/2012 : 08:50:43
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What Would Hitchens Do?
I don't and won't mistake Christopher Hitchens for the personage alluded to by the first six letters of his given name. "Hitch" was no Messiah. He was a quite fallible man, and knew it. Some aspects (drinking and smoking) of this fallibility probably contributed to his death last December 15. But as a mortal human standing up for his beliefs, never being willing to suffer fools, hypocrites, or manipulators, Hitchens will shine as a beacon for generations to come.
I think it's proper for us all to think in terms of Christopher Hitchens' best and most prominent characteristics whenever we embark upon a confrontation with the sort of corrupt and dangerous people we should all be opposing.
So what would Hitchens do? For starters, consider his advice to young writers (video), and ponder how we might these ideas to our own lives as skeptics:
| Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the 'transcendent' and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don't be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses. Do not live for others any more than you would expect others to live for you. |
What do you think are some of the other things worth emulating that Hitchens would do?
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
Edited by - HalfMooner on 01/31/2012 08:52:12
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chefcrsh
Skeptic Friend
Hong Kong
380 Posts |
Posted - 01/31/2012 : 09:02:42 [Permalink]
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| You need go no further than reading Letters to a Young Contrarian, where, by the way, as the end of the book, that quote began. |
| Edited by - chefcrsh on 01/31/2012 09:03:46 |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 01/31/2012 : 09:10:14 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by chefcrsh
You need go no further than reading Letters to a Young Contrarian, where, by the way, as the end of the book, that quote began.
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I'm a Hitchens Johnny-come-lately, having been aware of him for only five or six years. I only have a couple of his books, and not that one. The National Bookstore chain here dominates the Philippines and does a Walmart to the competition. And yet they have a very poor selection of books. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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chefcrsh
Skeptic Friend
Hong Kong
380 Posts |
Posted - 01/31/2012 : 09:23:22 [Permalink]
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| That is his treatise on what to do to do what he does. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 01/31/2012 : 20:49:56 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by chefcrsh
That is his treatise on what to do to do what he does.
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I see. Could you quote a little, or summarize, please? |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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chefcrsh
Skeptic Friend
Hong Kong
380 Posts |
Posted - 01/31/2012 : 23:39:06 [Permalink]
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First, I doubt that I am any less a Hitchens come lately than you. However as Thoreux wrote long ago: "How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book! The book exists for us, perchance, which will explain our miracles and reveal new ones. The at present unutterable things we may find somewhere uttered. These same questions that disturb and puzzle and confound us have in their turn occurred to all the wise men; not one has been omitted; and each has answered them, according to his ability, by his words and his life." For me Hitchens was one such author. So since learning of him I have made sincere effort to measure the length, bredth and depth of his mind.
As an Expat in Asia these past 18 years, I have found Amazon, Audible, and Lands End to be highly reputable and almost essential resources.
Now to your request. To summarise or paraphrase would do a great injsustice to the Author. However a select quote from time to time may be acceptable.
From the beginning of the book: "So then—you rather tend to flatter and embarrass me, when you inquire my advice as to how a radical or “contrarian” life may be lived. The flattery is in your suggestion that I might be anybody’s “model,” when almost by definition a single existence cannot furnish any pattern (and, if it is lived in dissent, should not anyway be supposed to be emulated)." ... "Nonetheless, there are in all periods people who feel themselves in some fashion to be apart. And it is not too much to say that humanity is very much in debt to such people, whether it chooses to acknowledge the debt or not. (Don’t expect to be thanked, by the way. The life of an oppositionist is supposed to be difficult.)" ... "The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 02/01/2012 : 02:32:10 [Permalink]
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Thanks for the reply, chefcrsh.
I will try investigating those resources you listed, thank you! Maybe I can get some of the books I need.
And thank you especially for taking the time and effort to transcribe from Letters to a Young Contrarian. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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chefcrsh
Skeptic Friend
Hong Kong
380 Posts |
Posted - 02/01/2012 : 19:44:58 [Permalink]
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Another: | There is a saying from Roman antiquity: Fiat justitia—ruat caelum. “Do justice, and let the skies fall.” In every epoch, there have been those to argue that “greater” goods, such as tribal solidarity or social cohesion, take precedence over the demands of justice. It is supposed to be an axiom of “Western” civilisation that the individual, or the truth, may not be sacrificed to hypothetical benefits such as “order.” But in point of fact, such immolations have been very common. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 02/02/2012 : 01:08:33 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by chefcrsh
Another: | There is a saying from Roman antiquity: Fiat justitia—ruat caelum. “Do justice, and let the skies fall.” In every epoch, there have been those to argue that “greater” goods, such as tribal solidarity or social cohesion, take precedence over the demands of justice. It is supposed to be an axiom of “Western” civilisation that the individual, or the truth, may not be sacrificed to hypothetical benefits such as “order.” But in point of fact, such immolations have been very common. |
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I think that's an especially powerful thought. I wish religions made such statements more often and more clearly. Instead, they seem to prefer to make strong "moral" pronouncements about sexual and gender trivialities. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 02/02/2012 01:08:57 |
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WWHD?
