I've seen a number of obituaries for Christopher Hitchens today. They seem to alternate between two basic stances:
Yeah, he was an unrepentant warmonger and misogynist...but he sure did stick it to those goddamn Bible-thumpers and their invisible sky buddies!As you can see, things even out nicely. Granted, Hitchens' political miscalculations have a body count. But how about all those dragons he killed? (Or not actual dragons...but, y'know, the whole idea of dragons qua dragons, per se, in nuce, und so weiter. And not actually killed...but, y'know, personally disputed in some adamantine, ontically oppositional sense of not agreeing with 'em nohow, so there.)
Yeah, he was a hellbound atheist...but he sure did stick it to those goddamn peacenik hippies and their cult of diversity!
How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Who knows? Maybe angels don't even exist!
How many Iraqis died in the last nine years? Who knows? Let's look forward, not back!
When Hitchens called down brimstone and fire on Baghdad, that modern City of the Plain, at least it was based on tribalist hatred, gadfly posturing and preening first-world privilege rather than mere superstition. I mean, give the guy some credit. He may have been wrong — politically, historically, logically, scientifically and morally — but at least he wasn't stupid. And if you don't believe me, just look into this barrel full of invisible dead fish.
Anyway. Forgive me if I don't feel like eulogizing Hitchens, who shrugged off countless deaths with one laborious literary phrase after another. I would much prefer to praise good people like myself, who attempted to prevent countless deaths with one laborious literary phrase after another.
On second thought, let's change the subject. If we're talking about dancing angels, should thumbtacks count as pins?
(Image at top: "The Great Day of His Wrath" by John Martin, 1853.)
4 comments:
i hope you keep on with the laborious literary phrases, they make me laugh in a good way.
... tribalist hatred, gadfly posturing and preening first-world privilege ...
Yep. And furthermore, exactly. But as you said, thank goodness our cruise missiles weren't motivated by primitive superstition.
The most shocking thing about the aftermath of 9/11 wasn't the lynch mob mentality -- that was only to be expected. It was seeing so many people like Hitchens -- who should have damn well known better -- cheering it on.
It was downright disorienting, watching someone who'd written this scathing indictment of Henry Kissinger and the murderous foreign policy establishment he so epitomized, turn into the second coming of Curtis LeMay.
But then, AFAIC, anyone who uses the term "Islamofascist" in a non-parodic sense has forfeited any right to be taken seriously.
It was seeing so many people like Hitchens -- who should have damn well known better -- cheering it on.
Absolutely. There was never any excuse for seeing Bush & Co. as competent or honest. Anyone who did, or pretended to, was naive, crazy or corrupt. And it should've ended their careers. (Of course, if we lived in a world where errors like that ended careers, errors like that probably wouldn't happen in the first place.)
But yeah, at least Hitchens wasn't fool enough to believe that the targets of his bloodlust had souls. So hats off to him for that.
No one mourns the wicked.
JzB
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