Have you heard of Christopher Hitchens? He is the Kissinger critic and columnist who went all pro-American after 911 despite his earlier stripes as a critic of the USG. Anyway, I've heard of him and even agree with him sometimes but one thing I didn't know about him is that he's got a brother whom he's been estranged from since shortly after 911. It seems his little brother, Peter Hitchens, is a successful columnist in their home country of Britain and mentioned that his big brother once said that he'd like to see the Red Army in Hendon, which is a suburb of London, I think.
Anyway, this comment came shortly after 911 when people were giving the elder Hitchens crap about going all ga-ga for George Bush. He refused to talk to his little bro for four years. Finally, the Guardian prints a transcript from their first meeting in that time. It's short, but an interesting read if you're a follower of either of the Brothers Hitchens.
Check it out here at Guardian.co.uk.
Thanks for posting this, Pete. I like Christopher Hitchens, although I depart from his point of view on several issues. I always thought of his brother as a crabby old hatemonger, but it's interesting to see CH admit to "despising" religious folk and PH saying that his only objection to atheism is its adherents claiming that it isn't a faith...
ReplyDeleteYeah, I thought it was an interesting read, too. Although I disagree that Atheism is always a faith. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. Perhaps I just define my own Atheism as something else. You can't call it a "faith" when you don't believe in anything, can you? At least, that's my opinion.
ReplyDeleteLike you I depart from his opinion on a lot of issues, but he is an interesting guy. I don't fully respect him, but his gear change around 911 was the most interesting of all of the gear changes I saw among public figures.
Anyway, glad you liked it!