By THE TIMES SECOND LEADER - THE TIMES (LONDON)
Added: Tue, 10 Aug 2010 20:23:50 UTC

In a remarkable gesture, The Times of London today used its second leading article to pay tribute to Christopher Hitchens. There may be precedents for this, but I cannot think of any, and I must say it delights and moves me.

Richard

“Agony over death strikes me as unworthy of any philosophy which conceives itself as a quest for wisdom,” wrote Sidney Hook, the pragmatist philo- sopher. Hook was among the most notable of American public intellectuals, and of foes of obscur- antism and tyranny. His sentiment is exemplified in comments made in extraordinary circumstances by a writer who matches that description.

Christopher Hitchens, the British-born author, had cancer of the oesophagus diagnosed in June. It had spread so swiftly that a tumour could be physically seen and felt. In an article for Vanity Fair and a television interview, in which he appeared gaunt and with hair loss from chemo- therapy, he has reflected on his condition. “In whatever kind of a ‘race’ life may be,” Hitchens writes, “I have very abruptly become a finalist.”

Hitchens’s testimony is affecting, eloquent and devoid of self-pity. But its significance transcends even the natural public interest in the fate of a man of letters, for it shows a penetrating intelli- gence applying itself to the examination of life. Hitchens articulates with pithiness and poig- nancy the stoical attitude of endurance in adversity: “To the dumb question, ‘Why me?’ the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply, ‘Why not?’ ”

The word “contrarian” is applied to too many writers, not least by themselves. Yet it is one of few that properly indicate the range and character of Hitchens’s writings. He settled in the US in the early 1980s with a reputation as a man of the Left, but it is hard to name a British expatriate of modern times who has acquired greater influence within the Washington Beltway.

Hitchens has done this not through lobbying but through the power of words. His voluminous output on politics and culture, in numerous books and periodicals, expresses values espoused by one of his biographical subjects, George Orwell. It is a commitment to simple decency and intellectual honesty. For refusing to countenance excuses for tyranny and repression, Hitchens is reviled by many whom he once counted friends.

The split between them became obvious in the 1990s when some leftwingers perversely treated Slobodan Milosevic as a hero of anti-imperialism. It became irrevocable when theocratic fanatics killed thousands of civilians on American soil in 2001. Hitchens found to his disgust that many of his comrades regarded al-Qaeda as driven to its acts by Western provocation rather than malign ideology. He supported Western intervention to defeat the Taleban and depose Saddam Hussein, advanced far better arguments than the US and UK governments, and became a US citizen.

Some of Hitchens’s views, such as his regard for Trotsky and denunication of Mother Teresa, go beyond idiosyncrasy to eccentricity. Yet all are expressed with remorseless logic and sympathy for the oppressed, and in peerless prose. His stand for free expression is courageous and exemplary. He put his life at risk to shelter Sir Salman Rushdie against Islamist death threats. And his famously pugilistic debating style co-exists with a personal graciousness that his enemies rarely acknowledge and never reciprocate.

A celebrated advocate of atheism, Hitchens declares that he is touched by offers of prayers for his recovery. People of all faiths and none will join them to wish for him an extensive final lap of the race. By the warmth of his personality as well as the clarity of his thinking, he enriches public life.

Original article here

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