It was actually Ockham who prepared our minds for this unwelcome (to him) conclusion. He devised a "principle of economy," popularly known as "Ockham's Razor," which relied for its effect on disposing of unnecessary assumptions and accepting the first sufficient explanation or cause. "Do not multiply entities beyond necessity." This principle extends itself. "Everything which …
Missing The Hitch
"Given this overwhelming tendency to stupidity and selfishness in myself and among our species, it is somewhat surprising to find the light of reason penetrating at all. The brilliant Schiller was wrong in his "Joan of Arc" when he said that "against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain." It is actually by means of …
New & Improved Ten Commandments
By Christopher Hitchens Do not condemn people on the basis of their ethnicity or their color. Do not ever even think of using people as private property. Despise those who use violence or the threat of it in sexual relations. Hide your face and weep if you dare to harm a child. Do not condemn people …
His Honesty
"His honesty about this paradox or contradiction is what determined him to write Nineteen Eighty-Four as an admonitory parable or fantasy in which 'Ingsoc'--English Socialism--was the Newspeak term for the ruling ideology. It would have been perfectly easy for him to have avoided this crux. In the late 1940s, a dystopian novel based on the …
Pilgrams And Pirates
"Pilgrims had sailed to 'The Americas' to establish doctrinal purity, and pirates had made the same voyage in search of treasure and slaves. In Paine's time, however, the New World of 'the United States of America' (a name he may have coined) was an actual and concrete achievement; not an imaginary Utopia but a home …
Hitch On Chomsky
Naom Chomsky, a most distinguished intellectual and moral dissident, once wrote that the old motto about "speaking truth to power" is overrated. Power, as he points out, quite probably knows the truth already, and is mainly interested in suppressing or limiting or distorting it. -Christopher Hitchens, Letters To A Young Contrarian
Doing Good
No greater cruelty will be devised than by those who are sure, or are assured, that they are doing good. -Christopher Hitchens, Arguably
Skip The Buck
Where does the buck stop? Does it stop with the lie or with a truth? Or does it stop when both lie and truth are made to merge? Enter Christopher Hitchens. The grand debunker of lies and grandest debunker of truths dictated by religious nut-bags (which are ultimately lies). What is it that makes me …
Hitched
Hitch 22 - A Memoir by Christopher Hitchens This worst-post is supposed to be an explanation of my experience with Hitch 22. But something happened as I started to write. First. I'm a big Christopher Hitchens fan. I really admire him and his work. Although I've only read five of his books so far, I …
Hitch And Paine
Thoughts on Christopher Hitchens and Thomas Paine Three Brits did a job on my head. One was a great thinker, one was a great writer and the other didn't bother to tell me, after we had done the dirty deed a whole bunch, that she was married. But I'll get to all that in a …
