<< Hitchens isn't upper crust at all - he's middle class, the son of a naval officer. His colleague Cockburn is the real thing, crust-wise. >>
So Hitchens is a poseur too. Are we surprised?
Before I left Mississippi, I imagined what would happen were Hitchens to visit our turf in his quest for credits. I tried to guess who might volunteer to be his interpreter for a tour of the Delta, and who might emerge as his heroic host. Neither thought was reassuring as a vehicle to spread the word of our struggles, for those who regard Leo Huberman's agitprop pamphlet How to Spread the Word as our guide. If such an emergency were to occur, I thought, best would be a trip to Mayersville for lunch with Unita Blackwell. I believe she's our country's only Black woman Maoist mayor, in whose SNCC home Shirley Maclaine baby-sat during Freedom Summer, relatively harmless subjects for the Hitchens treatment.
Both Hitchens and Cockburn are overly fond of celebrity, among other unfortunate traits, but Alex at least feels an occasional need, or perhaps is prodded by associates, to genuflect toward the grass roots.
[These comments apply to their writings. Having lived for many years without a television set at hand, I'm not versed in their video personae, nor Doug's either, for that matter.]
Ken Lawrence