This is of course an encouraging finding; it helps arm you against news programs back home that show seething or abject masses of either fanatical or torpid people.

On the way into the assembly one had to be sniffed from head to toe by two agonisingly beautiful California girls dressed in flame-ochre kimonos.This slim but lively book of ideas by this resistant-to-pigeonholing intellectual contemplates what it means to hold unpopular opinions and take unpopular stances and to argue with informed intelligence while living with the consequences of one's positions/beliefs.

Nosaukums ļoti precīzi pasaka, ka grāmata ir kā ievads pretņa (ļoti patīk šis Raiņa Tota apzīmējums) dzīvošanas (domāšanas) stilā, tāpēc varbūt būtu gribējies to lasīt kādus gadus agrāk. People who speak their views clearly, intelligently, and elegantly are severely lacking in the fetid mainstream of United States’ (and beyond’s? Homer was wrong," wrote Heracleitus of Ephesus, "Homer was wrong in saying: 'Would that strife might perish from among gods and men!

What I also like about Hitchens is that he uses just the right balance of high mindedness and modesty/self deprication. There is a saying from Roman antiquity: "Fiat justitia - ruat caelum"; "Do justice, and let the skies fall. Topics such as religion, communism, racism, identity politics, and politicians from both ends of the spectrum are all covered from his own perspective. Let this be a voice in the back of your head whenever you, or someone else, describes someone, (or himself) first and foremost in terms of ‘racial identity’, or when ‘identity politics’ is brought up.

I made a mental note to give the Hitch a third or fourth chance, knowing how often I get things wrong, or make snap judgements which reduce complexities and ignore subtleties--along the lines of, um, God Is Not Great, actually. It became the replication in even less interesting form of the narcissism of the small difference, because each identity group begat its sub-groups and "specificities. Be even more suspicious than I was just telling you to be, of all those who employ the term "we" or "us" without your permission. Christopher Hitchens professes a great admiration for Oscar Wilde in this book - mainly for Wilde's wit, but you can see that Hitchens is also influenced by Wilde's public facade. This maxim, fondly known as the Hitchens rule, has been proved true time and again in the years since Christopher Hitchens' death in 2011.The word antitheism smacks of a shaking-ones-fist-at-the-sky quality and Hitchens’ detractors are quick to point this out. In fact I would go so far as to say that a refusal to read this book on personal grounds is as much a vindication of what it has to say as it is an objection to it. The “funny” thing is that the broadcast landed Wodehouse in an infinity of trouble with the British authorities, representing a nation that prides itself above all on a sense of humor. there is something idiotic about those who believe that consensus (to give the hydra-headed beast just one of its names) is the highest good.

This is my third read of this book and I really won't be exaggerating when I say that I look forward to many future readings.Nobody in the supposedly affluent and disillusioned 50s had seen any of this coming; I am quite certain that there will be future opportunities for people of high ideals, or of any ideals at all. Anyone familiar with his work could see that while Hitchens certainly enjoyed a good debate, and would instinctively rally to unpopular causes, this was no mere pose, and he really did believe in what he was saying. If you want to stay in for the long haul, and lead a life that is free from illusions either propagated by you or embraced by you, then I suggest you learn to recognize and avoid the symptoms of the zealot and the person who knows he is right. being a christian who is passing , "through the dark night - alright - of the soul", as he hilariously concedes to the young contrarian. It is a strange thing, but it remains true that our language contains no proper word for your aspiration.