Christopher Hitchens died last night and the world has lost one of its most polarizing and controversial figures. I know many people who loved Christopher Hitchens – and many others who couldn’t stand him. My own opinion of Hitchens was, at first, ambivalent.
I first became familiar with Hitchens about a decade ago, reading his work for the online magazine Slate. I had two basic reactions to his writing at the time, either I agreed with him and thought “this is amazing, he argues the point perfectly” or I disagreed with him and thought “how can he possibly believe this, much less put it so pompously and arrogantly”.
I continued to read him and came to move beyond my initial, emotional reactions to the arguments I disagreed with and found facts and solid reason beneath them. I found those emotions to be the result of having my beliefs challenged, often ones I had never really examined closely and, as a result, found wanting. This is not to say that I came to always agree with Hitchens, far from it, but I appreciated his passion, his intellectual honesty and having my own views challenged so effectively that they either changed or were made stronger as a result.
I came to regard Christopher Hichens as a person of great intellectual and moral courage and integrity. The fact that I continued to disagree with him on occasion only demonstrated the great moral complexity of so many of the issues our species faces and the bankruptcy of black-and-white, cut-and-dried moral dogma. He represented a wonderful blending of our emotional and rational natures; passionate conviction wedded to reasoned argument. Indeed, it was his passion that led so many to despise him.
While reading of his death, I came across a quote of his that struck me, particularly the part excerpted below:
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.
I find these all to be wonderful precepts on how to live your life, but what really struck me was the part about not being a spectator to unfairness or stupidity and to seek out argument. This is not to say there isn’t a place for politeness and civil behavior; I’m not going to challenge every thoughtless, unjust opinion ever expressed at every party or social function I attend (I can just hear my wife saying “I can’t take you anywhere!") but too often we use politeness and civility as an excuse to avoid confronting things that should not be allowed to pass unchallenged.
We do this at our peril; injustice, stupidity and lies that go unchallenged get repeated and, if repeated often enough, become accepted as just, wise and true. Upon reflecting on this today, I find I have been far too guilty of being the spectator. In this very blog I have censored myself and avoided writing posts about the things I had been most concerned with at the time because I deemed them to be controversial. (This, in part, accounts for some of the long gaps between posts.) Hitchens’ words haven’t entirely reformed me - I am not quite ready to throw caution to the winds – but, as he did before, he has challenged me and I will take a few more cautions steps down the road to living a life of moral and intellectual honesty and integrity.
Tonight I shall drink a glass of whiskey (Redbreast,not the Johnny Walker Black he was so fond of – we have none in the house) to his memory.
Goodbye Hitch.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012 at 12:32PM 
