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Christopher Hitchens

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Knobby22 said:
Heard Phillip Adams talk about him last night.

He stated that he greatly respected him as a person and a friend who agreed with him on nearly everything. (Thought of you, Julia, when he said that).
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Um, why, Knobby?
 
Knobby22 said:
Heard Phillip Adams talk about him last night.

He stated that he greatly respected him as a person and a friend who agreed with him on nearly everything. (Thought of you, Julia, when he said that).
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Strange, I doubt if the feeling was mutual, if Hitchens did indeed know Adams. I would have thought he would have seen Adams as one of the old style socialists who couldn't escape from the past in their attitudes.
 
bellenuit said:
Strange, I doubt if the feeling was mutual, if Hitchens did indeed know Adams. I would have thought he would have seen Adams as one of the old style socialists who couldn't escape from the past in their attitudes.
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Exactly my thoughts. And the reason I've asked Knobby why he thought of me when he heard Mr Adams last night.

I suppose everyone who ever had the slightest passing acquaintance with Christopher Hitchens is now keen to claim deep friendship with him, given that the sadly departed Mr Hitchens cannot contradict such a claim.
 
Hi Julia, I know you greatly respected Hitchkins and had the opposite opinion of Adams and so the statement surprised me. I do not really know enough about either of them to form an opinion.

Maybe Adams was being sarcastic but it didn't sound like it.
 
kennas said:
I don't know who this guy is, or even if he is dead yet, but.....

he'll be even more sadly missed by his family and friends who have watched him die a slow and painful and selfish death by smoking and whisky. Those people who commit themselves to such a death and explain it away as 'my choice' are simply addicts who can not, or are not willing to, do what is better for their most important connections. No sympathy whatsoever except for the people he has made suffer after he has turned to dust.

:2twocents
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That seems like a rather judgemental and in a way dishonest thing to say.

Do you not drink alcohol, smoke or eat foods which may be bad for you, or partake in any activity which increases you chance of death?

Hitchens response seemed very measured and honest to me, he was asked if he would change anything if he knew his drinking and smoking could be leading to cancer, he said it would be dishonest of him to say he would change it, because he did know those habits carried risk all along, but like most smokers and drinkers, he carried on, thinking perhaps he would get away with it.

Phew also gave an honest appraisal, saying he believed that the drinking added genuine enjoyment to his life, extended conversations, added enjoyment to afternoon reading, and made nights last longer, to him in his life these were real benefits, yes they may have cut his life short, but he lived into his 60's, and at some point enjoyment of each day lived out weighs the number of days lived.
 
LostMyShirt said:
I do not hold to many things that Hitchins says. Hitchins is a public Atheist, with a great intellect who tried to apply his intellect to philosophy of reality, creation, God etc.

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Are you trying to say you shouldn't use intellect in such matters?


Though I haven't heard of any cases where God intervenes to offer a prolonged life
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.

Neither have I. So why bother praying.
 
Value Collector said:
He also gave an honest appraisal, saying he believed that the drinking added genuine enjoyment to his life, extended conversations, added enjoyment to afternoon reading, and made nights last longer, to him in his life these were real benefits, yes they may have cut his life short, but he lived into his 60's, and at some point enjoyment of each day lived out weighs the number of days lived.
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He summed it up best here, "all of life is a wager, and I chose to wager on this,... and I don't think I regret it"

 
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He was right on the money!

Hitchens - Resistings Islam

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Fans should get hold of this book if they can: The Quotable Hitchens - The Very Best of Christopher Hitchens. Da Capo Press, 2011.

Hitchens quotes on a broad and diverse range of subjects, eg

Hitchens, Christopher and the Left
"I learn with complacency that I have been excommunicated from the left" ['The Ends of War," Nation, 12/2101]

Life
"...The unlived life is not worth examining." ["Nixon: Maestro of Resentment," Dissent, Fall 1990]
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For Julia. And C.Hitchens.
 
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