After a romp through the 1970s and that decade's various international revolutions and attempts, Hitch decides to move to the US (and he eventually became a US citizen). In his memoir he dedicates a whole chapter to his reasoning for the move, and it's some of the best "pro-American" writing I've ever read. It's odd that sometimes it takes the most scathing critics to do the best job of describing the virtues of something. I think of Mencken's favorable descriptions of the US. I knew that he liked the US for the religious freedom, and the founding ideals, but I was surprised at how much he likes the whole experiment.
Hitch is hard to quote meaningfully because he builds up his rhetoric page after page, so there aren't many pithy standalone quotes. So you just have to take my word that there are many memorable lines.
And he stands in such great contrast to the other folks in the media who write pro-America drivel that makes me question the US. Hitch actually rouses a sense of patriotism in me, and that's quite an accomplishment.
Hitchen is an interesting fellow. I read where George Galloway, British politician,called him a "drink-sodden ex-Trotskyist popinjay". To which he replied "Only some of which is true".
ReplyDeleteAnd I would guess that "popinjay" is the only part he would disagree with. There rest, he cops to readily.
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