'I think that's right. He'll be remembered as part of the pantomime horse that Terry Eagleton called "Ditchkins" in Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate.
Requiescat in pace.'
Perhaps. I'm more sure that none of us know how he'll be remembered in the long term.
What I'm personally struck by, although I was never a fan at all, is his capacity to enable debate in a usefully non-stupid way. I think my son became a Hitchens fan at about 14 or so. It was the Orwell book anyway. He was a big Orwell fan and I somewhat randomly decided to give him Why Orwell Matters for Christmas that year. Ironic, I suppose. Doubly so, given that he (my son I mean) was a Christmas boycotter even then. Anyway, Hitchens then and since has marked a space for interesting debate in my home and even when both of us disagreed with him that's been a wholly productive thing because, as I said, he's never been idiotic.
I truly believe the world is just better for the presence of people who want and further intelligent debate and I think Hitchens could be fairly credited with both those things. Most people who get his press manage to get either dumb or clownish.
So. Vale.
Catherine
On Dec 16, 2011, at 5:22 AM, Joseph Catron wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 10:46 AM, Angelus Novus <
> fuerdenkommunismus at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Looking at the tribute threads at places like Reddit, it's strange to
>> realize that there are a whole generation of younger people for whom
>> Hitchens is a hero primarily because he wrote that book on his
>> atheism.
>> That's basically what he's going to be remembered for, as being
>> part of the
>> group that includes Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett.
>>
>
> I tend to assume that, much to Hitchens' misfortune, his
> cheerleading for
> multiple wars towards the end of his life will be remembered longer
> than
> that. Those things had real consequences. New Atheism has been a fun
> little
> intellectual diversion, like the Death of God theologians of the
> 1960s but
> without the substance. (And in fairness to the departed, he was the
> best of
> the bunch. Unlike those other two, he wrote rollicking good polemics,
> rather than droning bad arguments.)
>
> --
> "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure
> mægen
> lytlað."
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