Writer and self-professed contrarian Christopher Hitchens has esophageal cancer, and as a result has canceled his book tour. I had been eagerly anticipating seeing him at a tour stop in Seattle, but I’m now reflecting on Hitchens’ influence in my own life and writing. Several years ago I founded a campus newspaper with friends, and we dedicated the debut issue to Hitchens. See our tribute back then at the link below.
PUNCH: An Independent Newspaper at Seattle Pacific University
October 2002
Christopher Hitchens, or “Hitch,” as he is known in D.C. and mother England, wrote his last “Minority Report” column for The Nation last week. It was his regular gig for the past twenty years. In his farewell column, Hitchens notes wryly that “it seems to me false to continue the association.”
“The association” is clearly a reference to the divided state of the ideological Left, on which he stands alone, following the post-9/11 chatter. Hitchens is virtually the only one who identifies “Islamofascism” – a term he coined soon after the attacks – as the greatest threat to the civilized world, one which the West must totally destroy to be safe and to allow freedom to bloom in the Middle East.
The Nation is America’s oldest political magazine. It is the most widely read collection of manifestos and opinion for people on the Left and the far, far Left. At the time Hitchens joined, the magazine’s publisher described it as a debating ground between liberals and radicals. Hitchens occupies that territory uniquely, the most radical of all after his comrades’ America-hating orgy, post-9/11.
“With trademark savage wit, Hitchens flattens hypocrisy inside the Beltway and around the world, laying bare the ‘permanent government’ of entrenched powers and interests.” This blurb on The Nation website is an understatement.
Hitchens’ credentials as one of the most prolific British writers in the U.S. are impeccable. He has been a visiting professor at UC-Berkeley and The New School for Social Research in New York, and contributes regularly to Atlantic Monthly and Harpers. When he’s not writing polemical books on Henry Kissinger, Bill Clinton, or “that evil little nun” Mother Teresa, he’s published in Vogue and Vanity Fair, or The Guardian of the U.K.
He was one of the first to accuse Clinton of war crimes for bombing a Sudanese pharmaceutical plant, in order to “distract attention from his filthy lunge at a beret-wearing cupcake.” He’s done more to reveal Clinton as a perverted liar than any right-winger could have hoped for, which is part of his charm. “Self-styled contrarian” and “radical” are the names I often hear associated with Hitchens, but it’s not enough. He’s a radical radical, beholden to no one, a true inspiration in an environment where a healthy dose of dissent is needed.
Radical-turned-conservative David Horowitz once noted that the Left is like the mafia. Naming names is frowned upon because it weakens the comradeship needed to maintain power and loyalty. All fingers must be pointed outward and dissent is never tolerated within. PUNCH salutes you, Christopher, for being the independent we hope this newspaper will be to SPU.
I’m a tech journalist who’s making a TV show about a college newspaper.