Today marks the seventy-first birthday of a great man whose words and actions liberated a lot of young minds across the globe, a man whose language skills inspired a generation of writers and whose drinking ability brought charm to alcoholics. The man is none other than the great orator, author, polemicist, journalist Christopher Eric Hitchens or as his friends call Hitch. I couldn’t find a more apt day to come out of my hiatus and write again. This is my tribute to the great man, who had an unparalleled influence on me and a person I consider my mentor. Writers and scientists far superior to me have written about the great man. I can’t stop expressing my admiration to my hero just because there were people who did it more eloquently than I.
The most impressive part about Christopher is the axioms on which he operated. He also had a unique ability to refine them. While lesser mortals prefer distilled truths, Christopher can make his own from the collective learning of our entire species. As new facts emerged, he will be more than happy to dismiss those axioms for new ones. Further, his premises to those axioms were fairly simple. They were to achieve liberty, fellowship and wisdom. Every action and view of the great man were an extension of these. While many people say this very few people have ever stayed true to it in the face of adversity or contradicting facts but not Christopher. He will fight you even as his friend if you have to be corrected.
Very few people in history have defied loyalty to their group identity and always stayed true to their identity. Christopher Hitchens was a darling of the American radical left. His views were always in line with what we refer as traditional leftist views. He walked in lockstep with the famous linguist, dissident and author Noam Chomsky. He then parted ways with his comrades over the issue of Islamic terrorism. They wanted to blame the United States for it and Christopher wasn’t ready. This led to a year of trading insults in the public. Christopher wasn’t the one to flinch in the face of adversity. He fought back in a way only he can.
Oliver Goldsmith lived over 2 centuries before the birth of Christopher Hitchens but I imagine he had a view of Christopher’s ability when he wrote the Village Schoolmaster. The words can only do justice to Christopher.
Full well they laugh’d with counterfeited glee,
At all his jokes, for many a joke had he:
Full well the busy whisper, circling round,
Convey’d the dismal tidings when he frown’d:
Yet he was kind; or if severe in aught,
The love he bore to learning was in fault.
The village all declar’d how much he knew;
‘Twas certain he could write, and cipher too:
Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage,
And e’en the story ran that he could gauge.
In arguing too, the parson own’d his skill,
For e’en though vanquish’d he could argue still;– excerpt from the Poem The village Schoolmaster by Oliver Goldsmith found in his collection “Deserted Village”
Christopher Hitchens was a ticking bomb in the hands of the people who want to use him for their vested interests. When Christopher parted ways with the American left on his war on terrorism, many people in the right started using him as a useful idiot or a tool in their hands. Little did they realise, that he was a ball of fire on their dirty hands. He burnt them alive with his scathing attack on religion with his book ‘god is not Great – How Religion Poisons Everything’. The book remains a masterpiece amongst the books written by the Four horsemen of Atheism. Christopher went on a book tour debating religious leaders across faiths and politicians across parties. The debates can only be described as the annihilation of the forces of darkness. His speech on the book at Google is still one of the best talks I have listened in Google.
Christopher Hitchens was a friend any honest individual would love to have and every dishonest person should fear. The two tales of friendship, one Salman Rushdie and the next with Sidney Blumenthal, perfectly encapsulates the fellowship Christopher held. Salman Rushdie found the militant support and reinforcement in Christopher when there was a fatwa against him from the Islamic nations or the protest against him being awarded the Bookers prize. On the other hand, Sidney Blumenthal faced the wrath of his once friend when he decided to backstab Christopher to be a confidante of the corrupt Clinton family. The man lived by and for his principles, right till his very end.
One of the famous quotes of Christopher was his response to a question on feeling safe in the night in an unknown city with religious people. Christopher responded to that question with cities without leaving the letter ‘B’ where he will never be comfortable when he knows that the crowd he is encountering is coming after a prayer meeting. It was brilliant, witty and above all irrefutable. I want to wrap my tribute to the great man by describing him with adjectives without leaving the letter ‘C’.
cantankerous – He was in all his views
captivating – He was when he expressed himself
cathartic – He was to every individual fighting for liberty
caustic – He was when you hurt his respect
challenging – He was when your views are wrong
changeable – He was with facts
charged – He was when taking on his foes
charming – He was admist adversity
cherished – He was amongst all his admirers
circumspect – He was about any faith
civilised – He was when dealing with common people
clever – He was as evident from his words
coherent – He was even when drunk
combative – He was when liberty is challenged
comfortable – He was with what he was doing
comical – He was when the situation demands
commendable – He was for all his output
communicative – He was to capture even a dissenting audience
compassionate – He was for people in need
competent – He was in every field
conscientious – He was when dealing with any issue
contentious – He was when drawn to dishonest attacks
convincing – He was in any argument
cordial – He was when being treated with respect
courageous – He was when facing a crisis
courteous – He was when speaking to strangers
Creative – He was with all his works
critical – He was of anything which affects humans in a wrong way
cultured – He was even when challenged
curious – He was as he kept learning
I can’t thank the great man enough. The world misses him as do I. His thoughts will live with me for the rest of my life.
Demystifying a skeptic's world 