Chapter 5: Christopher Hitchens
Chapter 5: Christoper Hitchens
When making criticisms about anything in the world, it is important to come at the subject from many points of view. If one is going to make statements criticizing the conspiracy theorism of Alex Jones, it is also fair to do segments on individuals such as Christopher Hitchens, Noam Chomsky, and Lyndon LaRouche.
Once again it is very difficult to make critical statements about the work of individuals like Hitchens. Similar feelings might be found in the chapter on Milo Yiannopoulos. Christopher Hitchens was and still is a man of great popularity. He has an enormous following that still holds his work in a high regard.
However, once again there must be a certain degree of evaluation that comes to anyone in his line of work.
In his later years, Hitchens became famous for his work on Atheism, or his particular brand, Anti-Theism. As he said in a blunt manner on Sean Hannity's Sunday show, Hannity's America. I'm an Anti-Theist. I think Religion is a bad idea. This became a popular and almost mantra-like statement that was echoed around the internet and in works such as that of the comedian Jamie Carr.
In his earlier years, Hitchens tried to market himself as a groundbreaking and cutting edge journalist who wanted to use the British polemic tradition to gain attention and then share his point of view.
He wrote pieces trying to expose the dirty secrets and add new perspectives on the lives of Bill Clinton, Mother Theresa, and Henry Kissinger to name a few.
Criticism 1:
Hitchens wrote character assassination pieces. He targeted the individual and not the idea. Instead of writing a promotion for world peace, he wrote The Trial of Henry Kissinger. There are two major reasons for this.
1. Saul Alinsky's first rule for radicalism was to go after the individual and not the idea, as the individual will break first.
If we apply this to the work of Hitchens, he wrote character hit job pieces because the individuals are more sensitive, and also it is easier to generate a massive audience to hate a certain individual.
2. Human beings connect more with individuals than they do with ideas.
Websites and eBooks such as this one record all of the statistics and information on viewership. By looking at the data, it is clear that the most frequently used search keywords are the names of people. Human beings are drawn more to issues regarding a certain person, rather than an action or a school of thought.
Point of Criticism 1: Hitchens combined attacking the individual and preying upon the sensitivity of the human condition to promote character assassination pieces of individuals more famous than him.
He used someone else's popularity against him. This is not the most evil thing in the world. In fact, you are reading this now because I wrote about someone more famous than me, but it became the one trick pony that Hitchens used to promote his own writings for profit and for popularity.
Criticism 2:
Hitchens cared more about himself than any of his issues.
After the publishing of the The Trial of Henry Kissinger Hitchens gave most of the credit for the research to Seymour Hersh. Sy Hersh had written a book years prior entitled The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House.
All writers have sources, but following the publication of The Price of Power, Seymour Hersh appeared on C-Span Book TV, and in an interview with Brian Lamb, Hersh stated that the primary motivation for writing a political book is to make a profit.
The research credit Hitchens cited, stated on national television that the foremost motivation for his writings of Kissinger was to make a profit. Years later this material resurfaced in Hitchens The Trial of Henry Kissinger to make a profit once again. While Henry Kissinger is no saint, and perhaps he is not worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize, it is noteworthy that Hitchens did receive a profit from his book, and Kissinger never went on trial.
To compound this point, when asked what he really wanted from Henry Kissinger, Hitchens replied "some quality time" alone with him. That statement can hit a person like a brick. Hitchens wrote The Trial of Henry Kissinger. He should not have wanted quality time alone with him. He should have wanted to see Kissinger on trial. What was the motivation for the book again? To have an actual trial on the alleged war criminal or to make a profit or to have a journalist simply fight for an exclusive interview to spread his name in the papers some more or to to have a journalist sell more copies of the book that have his name on it from research that was most done by someone else or to have all the attention on himself as he trashtalked Kissinger, his popularity went up.
In the new millennium, hit jobs on political players were not enough for Hitchens. He needed a persona that was larger than all of the political players combined. This was God. Christopher Hitchens authored God is Not Great much to the satisfaction of people who already agreed with the movement anyway.
Christopher Hitchens applied the same character assassination tactics that he used on politicians and applied them to the Divine. For better or for worse, this served as a major boost to his popularity, and once again he sold many books. Milking the name of God for money and popularity is not something that he would likely have admitted, yet it is there all the same.
Point of Criticism 2:
To a degree, Hitchens might have believed some of the things he wrote about. In fact, he probably had his true feelings in many of them, but feelings are dwarfed when they are compared to his obsession and lust for attention. Profit is one thing, but the true motivation behind the writings of Christopher Hitchens is to increase his own popularity. He is a champion of egoism rather than Anti-Theism. He is a journalist fighting for showy exclusive interview as opposed to a political activist. He is someone who wants to be the center of attention.
Criticism 3:
Shoddy Workmanship
Hitchens was very vocal and articulate at the podium for press conferences and for debates. If he did not like what someone had to say he often start shouting in their direction and not let the other party finish a sentence. This became known as the Hitch Slap to his followers.
The works of Christopher Hitchens have their powerful wording, but they also contain pages and pages of filler, misinterpretations, and silly statements.
Some examples include:
1) Condemning Mother Theresa for putting a wreath on the grave of an Albanian Dictator. (It was a wreath, some branches wrapped in a circle, not important and leaves out context).
2) Pretending to read Henry Kissinger's mind and writing a draft confession for him. (Hitchens has no such ability. He's not God after all).
3) Using the classical definition of Theism for his religious/anti-religious arguments, one which is out of date and does not reflect the more worldly view of Theism in the 21st Century.
4) Making the unproven assertion and assumption that Henry Kissinger did not travel to London after the arrest of Pinochet because he was afraid of being arrested himself (Once again he can't read minds, and he is presenting his assumption as a fact).
5) Condemning Mother Theresa for accepting money from the corrupt Haitian government. (Dr. Ron Paul gives a very articulate response on accepting money from controversial figures. For example, if someone gives money to you, no matter who they are, they've given it to you for your cause. You can now use it in whatever way you choose. If you refuse the money or return the money, you are giving to someone who has a cause that you don't agree with. So why should you ever refuse?)
6) Joining the Neoconservative movement in America and promoting 21st Century Imperialism.
7) Supporting the Neocon blunder known as the Iraq war.
8) Working directly for the George W. Bush administration as a consultant during the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, wars that gave leeway to the same kind of war crimes that he accused Henry Kissinger of within 10 years after the publication of his Kissinger book.
That is just to begin.
The point of a chapter like this is not to trash Christopher Hitchens.
The point is to remind ourselves that the people out there selling political books are also trying to sell books and make money.
Often times individuals such as Hitchens or Milo become so popular that their audience does not even care what they are saying anymore. It is not what they say. It is not how they say it. The only thing that is important is the Who says it.
Hitchens has now passed away, much earlier than Henry Kissinger or Bill Clinton, yet he left a mark on the culture of the internet and technology generations. He was loud, and he attracted a lot of people to whatever book he was trying to sell or whatever magazine article he wanted people to read. At the same time, we have to always be careful when individuals are so confident at selling their words for profit.
When making criticisms about anything in the world, it is important to come at the subject from many points of view. If one is going to make statements criticizing the conspiracy theorism of Alex Jones, it is also fair to do segments on individuals such as Christopher Hitchens, Noam Chomsky, and Lyndon LaRouche.
Once again it is very difficult to make critical statements about the work of individuals like Hitchens. Similar feelings might be found in the chapter on Milo Yiannopoulos. Christopher Hitchens was and still is a man of great popularity. He has an enormous following that still holds his work in a high regard.
However, once again there must be a certain degree of evaluation that comes to anyone in his line of work.
In his later years, Hitchens became famous for his work on Atheism, or his particular brand, Anti-Theism. As he said in a blunt manner on Sean Hannity's Sunday show, Hannity's America. I'm an Anti-Theist. I think Religion is a bad idea. This became a popular and almost mantra-like statement that was echoed around the internet and in works such as that of the comedian Jamie Carr.
In his earlier years, Hitchens tried to market himself as a groundbreaking and cutting edge journalist who wanted to use the British polemic tradition to gain attention and then share his point of view.
He wrote pieces trying to expose the dirty secrets and add new perspectives on the lives of Bill Clinton, Mother Theresa, and Henry Kissinger to name a few.
Criticism 1:
Hitchens wrote character assassination pieces. He targeted the individual and not the idea. Instead of writing a promotion for world peace, he wrote The Trial of Henry Kissinger. There are two major reasons for this.
1. Saul Alinsky's first rule for radicalism was to go after the individual and not the idea, as the individual will break first.
If we apply this to the work of Hitchens, he wrote character hit job pieces because the individuals are more sensitive, and also it is easier to generate a massive audience to hate a certain individual.
2. Human beings connect more with individuals than they do with ideas.
Websites and eBooks such as this one record all of the statistics and information on viewership. By looking at the data, it is clear that the most frequently used search keywords are the names of people. Human beings are drawn more to issues regarding a certain person, rather than an action or a school of thought.
Point of Criticism 1: Hitchens combined attacking the individual and preying upon the sensitivity of the human condition to promote character assassination pieces of individuals more famous than him.
He used someone else's popularity against him. This is not the most evil thing in the world. In fact, you are reading this now because I wrote about someone more famous than me, but it became the one trick pony that Hitchens used to promote his own writings for profit and for popularity.
Criticism 2:
Hitchens cared more about himself than any of his issues.
After the publishing of the The Trial of Henry Kissinger Hitchens gave most of the credit for the research to Seymour Hersh. Sy Hersh had written a book years prior entitled The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House.
All writers have sources, but following the publication of The Price of Power, Seymour Hersh appeared on C-Span Book TV, and in an interview with Brian Lamb, Hersh stated that the primary motivation for writing a political book is to make a profit.
The research credit Hitchens cited, stated on national television that the foremost motivation for his writings of Kissinger was to make a profit. Years later this material resurfaced in Hitchens The Trial of Henry Kissinger to make a profit once again. While Henry Kissinger is no saint, and perhaps he is not worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize, it is noteworthy that Hitchens did receive a profit from his book, and Kissinger never went on trial.
To compound this point, when asked what he really wanted from Henry Kissinger, Hitchens replied "some quality time" alone with him. That statement can hit a person like a brick. Hitchens wrote The Trial of Henry Kissinger. He should not have wanted quality time alone with him. He should have wanted to see Kissinger on trial. What was the motivation for the book again? To have an actual trial on the alleged war criminal or to make a profit or to have a journalist simply fight for an exclusive interview to spread his name in the papers some more or to to have a journalist sell more copies of the book that have his name on it from research that was most done by someone else or to have all the attention on himself as he trashtalked Kissinger, his popularity went up.
In the new millennium, hit jobs on political players were not enough for Hitchens. He needed a persona that was larger than all of the political players combined. This was God. Christopher Hitchens authored God is Not Great much to the satisfaction of people who already agreed with the movement anyway.
Christopher Hitchens applied the same character assassination tactics that he used on politicians and applied them to the Divine. For better or for worse, this served as a major boost to his popularity, and once again he sold many books. Milking the name of God for money and popularity is not something that he would likely have admitted, yet it is there all the same.
Point of Criticism 2:
To a degree, Hitchens might have believed some of the things he wrote about. In fact, he probably had his true feelings in many of them, but feelings are dwarfed when they are compared to his obsession and lust for attention. Profit is one thing, but the true motivation behind the writings of Christopher Hitchens is to increase his own popularity. He is a champion of egoism rather than Anti-Theism. He is a journalist fighting for showy exclusive interview as opposed to a political activist. He is someone who wants to be the center of attention.
Criticism 3:
Shoddy Workmanship
Hitchens was very vocal and articulate at the podium for press conferences and for debates. If he did not like what someone had to say he often start shouting in their direction and not let the other party finish a sentence. This became known as the Hitch Slap to his followers.
The works of Christopher Hitchens have their powerful wording, but they also contain pages and pages of filler, misinterpretations, and silly statements.
Some examples include:
1) Condemning Mother Theresa for putting a wreath on the grave of an Albanian Dictator. (It was a wreath, some branches wrapped in a circle, not important and leaves out context).
2) Pretending to read Henry Kissinger's mind and writing a draft confession for him. (Hitchens has no such ability. He's not God after all).
3) Using the classical definition of Theism for his religious/anti-religious arguments, one which is out of date and does not reflect the more worldly view of Theism in the 21st Century.
4) Making the unproven assertion and assumption that Henry Kissinger did not travel to London after the arrest of Pinochet because he was afraid of being arrested himself (Once again he can't read minds, and he is presenting his assumption as a fact).
5) Condemning Mother Theresa for accepting money from the corrupt Haitian government. (Dr. Ron Paul gives a very articulate response on accepting money from controversial figures. For example, if someone gives money to you, no matter who they are, they've given it to you for your cause. You can now use it in whatever way you choose. If you refuse the money or return the money, you are giving to someone who has a cause that you don't agree with. So why should you ever refuse?)
6) Joining the Neoconservative movement in America and promoting 21st Century Imperialism.
7) Supporting the Neocon blunder known as the Iraq war.
8) Working directly for the George W. Bush administration as a consultant during the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, wars that gave leeway to the same kind of war crimes that he accused Henry Kissinger of within 10 years after the publication of his Kissinger book.
That is just to begin.
The point of a chapter like this is not to trash Christopher Hitchens.
The point is to remind ourselves that the people out there selling political books are also trying to sell books and make money.
Often times individuals such as Hitchens or Milo become so popular that their audience does not even care what they are saying anymore. It is not what they say. It is not how they say it. The only thing that is important is the Who says it.
Hitchens has now passed away, much earlier than Henry Kissinger or Bill Clinton, yet he left a mark on the culture of the internet and technology generations. He was loud, and he attracted a lot of people to whatever book he was trying to sell or whatever magazine article he wanted people to read. At the same time, we have to always be careful when individuals are so confident at selling their words for profit.