Advice from Christopher Hitchens
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
While Christopher Hitchens’ rhetoric can be bombastic and pompous at times, I appreciate the challenging and empowering ideas of this big thinker. His Vanity Fair article addressing his battle with cancer is quite moving, if not only for its firm grounding and keen sense of humor as he wrestles with his circumstances.
Reading again this oft-quoted passage from his 2001 book, Letters to a Young Contrarian, I’m reminded of the writer and polemicist’s strength and resolve, his ability to give good advice and challenge civility and social norms — for the better and for the worse:
“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.”
(via Against All Caligulas)
See, this is the reason I pretty much stand at the opposite side of Hitchens. I am the one who cannot trust someone who tells me to distrust compassion. I base almost my entire belief system in a combination of compassion and empathy. The proverbial walking in someone else’s shoes. I learned to distrust charity and philanthropy, sure. Especially because we should not leave to individuals with their own agendas and moral stances what should be the job of the state (protect all people equally under the rule of law, regardless of our own personal preferences). But distrusting compassion is what got us in the mess we are in, a system that privileges economic interests above people, that only listens to those who scream the loudest (and not surprisingly, who also have the most reach in media).
Hitchens, you and your inhumane atheism are the epitome of White privilege. Go preach to other White people about how they shouldn’t be compassionate. After all, they have been doing that for centuries. Someone like you only validates them further.
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