"The One and Only Hitch"

 

   Last year during December I wrote about Christopher Hitchens who had died in December, nine years before. I predicted that on the tenth anniversary of his passing, many paeans would be produced. I was correct. The title of this post is plagiarized from one of them. A few snippets are provided and they should be attributed to John G. Rodden (see, "The One and Only Hitch," American Purpose, Dec.15, 2021.)

How much we have missed him in this last, lost decade! Imagine “the Hitch” skewering the Donald for yet another Trumpertantrum, imagine him lambasting Jeff Bezos and Big Tech, imagine him mocking the craven American exit from Afghanistan, imagine him dissecting the politically correct shibboleths of the professoriate, imagine him daring and defying “cancel culture” to silence him…. Yes, imagine his delicious dismissals and superb send-ups of the ideologues and hypocrites on all sides. January 6? The 1619 Project? The anti-vaxxers? “Follow the science”? What verdicts he would have pronounced or published, I do not know. I only know that they would have been worth reading and worth listening to—and worth pondering. I only know that he would not have spared the Left, and he would not have excused the Right....

Christopher Hitchens may have been the greatest overall combination of speaker and writer in the English language of our time. The two skills are so different that it is rare indeed to encounter a master of both.

   The entire article should be read, and if you happened to have missed "The Hitch" when he was here, then you will be rewarded if you take the time to read just about anything he wrote. If you need convincing, just look for any YouTube video in which he is included. 

  If you need still more convincing, here is another sample from the many pieces written about him in the last few weeks. 

Christopher’s output, in columns, essays and books, was voluminous. He was one of very few foreign journalists to transplant to the United States and make an impact within the Beltway. He also had many detractors and enemies, notably but far from exclusively, among his former comrades on the radical left. Their hostility troubled him not at all. Unable to best him in debate while he was alive, some turned to condescension in death, insinuating that his talent was superficial and his politics a pose. In a review of a posthumous collection of Christopher’s essays, Terry Eagleton said primly: “His desire to belabour the establishment was matched only by his eagerness to belong to it.” 

Rather than assail the critics—for what would be the point, and where would it end?—I merely counter that Christopher was a giant of letters and of social criticism. His death diminished not only his admirers but the allied causes of rationality and liberty. His work transcended journalism. It was literature, and deserves to be celebrated as such for generations to come. 

   That is from: "The Courage of Christopher Hitchens: Ten Years Ago, I Lost a Friend and the World Lost an Intellectual Giant. We Miss Him Now More Than Ever, Oliver Kamm, Prospect  Dec. 13, 2021.

   Saying "Amen" certainly wouldn't be appropriate and I said what I had to say in Christopher Hitchens.