Christopher Hitchens, Letters to a Young Contrarian (2001)

Yeah, I suspect Hitchens is more well-known these days as a prominent atheist (and anti-theist) than a political writer or journalist. Seems unfortunate to me as I think his work as a political writer and journalist is of much higher quality and note than his stuff on religion.

Christopher Hitchens, more than any other single intellectual, has influenced me. I first came across Hitchens during the Iraq war debate in the early 2000s. I was in my last years of high school (class of ‘05) and then starting at college in Connecticut. At the time, I was something of a leftist, a “social democrat” or “libertarian socialist.” I had read Chomsky, Orwell, Zinn, Harvey, seen Adam Curtis films, and volunteered for Ralph Nader.

I wasn’t a hippie or anything close (and I was not a very political person) but I felt that leftism was more sophisticated, rational, and forward-looking. Naturally I was against! the American war in Iraq because I believed that the USA was a hegemonic,imperialistic, capitalist power run by neocons, neoliberals, and religious fundies. Hitchens changed that. I read Hitchens’ short book on the war and watched him brually humiliate anti-war leftists in debates. I noted Hitchens’ passionate yet logical, eloquent, and utterly informed arguments.

My respect grew for his kind of contrarian reasoning. I was never totally convinced on the war, but I did totally lose respect for the leftist anti-war movement. And gradually I lost respect for leftism itself.

Over time, I went from leftist statist to libertarian anti-statist. Getting an economics degree facilitated that change (plus public choice, the Vienna School, Hayek, the two Smiths, the three Friedmans, Coase, Camus, Popper, Rothbard, Ryan Faulk, etc.). However, Hitchens was the reason I really came to care about freedom in the first place. He broke me out of my presuppositional leftism.

Anyway, so I think it’s interesting to look briefly at the political evolution of Hitchens himself:

• 1949: Hitchens is born.
• 1967: Hitchens matriculates at Oxford.
• 1968-2001: Hitchens is a prominent state socialist influenced by Marx, Trotsky, Luxemburg, Orwell, Paine, Russell, Vidal, and Chomsky.
• 2001-today: Hitchens denounces socialism, embraces market capitalism, and and has public conflicts with anti-war leftists and socialists (including against Chomsky and Vidal).

In his own words (emphasis mine):

I can no longer say I am a socialist. … Marx’s original insight about capitalism was that it was the most revolutionary and creative force ever to appear in human history. And though it brought with it enormous attendant dangers, [the revolutionary and creative nature] was the first thing to recognize about it. That is actually what the Manifesto is all about. As far as I know, no better summary of the beauty of capital has ever been written. … There is no longer a general socialist critique of capitalism - certainly not the sort of critique that proposes an alternative or a replacement. There just is not and one has to face the fact, and it seems to me further that it’s very unlikely, though not impossible, that it will again be the case in the future.

Christopher Hitchens, “Free Radical” (Reason Magazine, November 2001)

I have not abandoned all the tenets of the Left. But I have learned a good deal from the libertarian critique of this worldview, and long with this has come a respect for those who upheld that critique when almost all the reigning assumptions were statist.

Christopher Hitchens, Letters to a Young Contrarian (New York: Basic Books, 2001)

I like to flatter myself by comparing my political evolution to that of Hitchens. You can’t deny the parallels, people. And I have talked to him in person. Anyway I felt pretty bad when I found out Hitchens had been diagnosed with cancer last year. Ah well. He seems to be doing alright.

Religion

Before: generically religious

 After: apathetic about religion

—-

 Before: apathetic about religion

 After: strong atheist

—-

 Before: strong atheist

 After: apathetic about religion

—-

 Before: apathetic about religion

 After: sympathetic to religion

—-

Before: ”there is probably no god”

After: ”maybe”

—-

Politics

 Before: apathetic about politics, generic conservative

 After: democratic socialist

—-

 Before: democratic socialist

 After: ”libertarian” socialist

—-

 Before: anti-war leftist

 After: somewhat pro-war leftist, Trotskyite

—-

 Before: somewhat pro-war leftist, Trotskyite

 After: left-leaning neoconservative

—-

 Before: left-leaning neocon

 After: left-leaning libertarian

—-

 Before: left-leaning libertarian

 After: generic libertarian

—-

Before: generic libertarian

After: anti-statist libertarian

—-

Philosophy

(and everything by Wittgenstein)

Before: retard

After: genius