An interview with the Oxford student newspaper 'Cherwell'
Some readers may find this (unusually observant) interview interesting.
Others may not
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Some readers may find this (unusually observant) interview interesting.
Others may not
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Californian, your comment about Mr Hitchens was just plain mean, as well as wrong. Also, if his "negativity" bothers you that much, you could stop reading him, but it's a bit rich to complain of his "negativity" when you've just dished out personal insults. You owe him an apology.
Posted by: louiseyvette | 13 December 2016 at 06:50 PM
All right, I give up. We're fighting the same battles on different sides of the planet. But apparently there will be no agreement on tactics or language. So adios, amigo and please do have a merry Christmas.
Posted by: Californian | 13 December 2016 at 05:51 PM
re;Peter Starr ...............................Peter i couldn't agree more and i couldn't have explained it better ......................i guess to be continued.
Posted by: tony archer | 13 December 2016 at 12:31 PM
PH wites:
"It is because religion has died. In the absence of religion, political belief becomes a test, in the holder's mind of goodness."
I agree with this, to some extent. There is a certain type of person who craves certitude, authority and dogma and, if (s)he is to seek it out, it is perhaps better that this is done through the conduit of religion, which, in the West at least, is now largely constrained, rather than via politics, where such certitude and absolutism can do untold harm.
Posted by: Mike B | 13 December 2016 at 12:02 PM
Enjoyable interview. Shame about the sloppy punctuation.
Posted by: Darren W | 13 December 2016 at 11:26 AM
To Tony Archer, who wants me to suggest "how 'hard work', as a policy prescription, could solve this country's current crisis..." I think we should build bridges in two directions: to the natural sciences, which I think Christians should love and make their own, and to the history of Christian thought (I extend my interest to Islam, as you may have noticed, but am more familiar with Eastern Christianity). Far-reaching engagement in the Church is vital both for testing and putting knowledge to proper use. We serve the Church and through it the world. I think British people should value true work, and that this is put at risk by global capitalism... That is probably enough.
Posted by: Peter Starr | 13 December 2016 at 10:30 AM
RE;Peter Starr..........................reevaluation of values, yes and if you require elucidation id be happy to oblige, but in my own words not resorting to lengthy historical or philosophical quotation or redirecting you to books words or prose that i myself hadn't written either in English or any other language after all that would just be an exercise in flouting my intellectual bona fides wouldn't you agree. Now if my memory serves me the intervention to my 'lighthearted' post to P.H was by yourself which makes the complaint yours so i urge you again in YOUR OWN WORDS to elaborate on how 'hard work ', as a policy prescription , could solve this countries current crisis.................................that is if you've nothing better to do.
Posted by: tony archer | 13 December 2016 at 01:14 AM
What did you do to deserve it?
Your relentless negativity eats at my soul. Also, note my screed on separate but equal bathrooms and my new president's woman-chief.
***PH remarks. I have noticed that there is no objective definition of negativity, a word meaning , roughly ' a view the person involved does not like'. I do not seek to please everyone, and if hecdoes not like what I say then we will both have to put up with that. ***
As to your last name, it certainly helped sell your book in 2011 when CH was ripping apart Christianity. I'm really glad I read Rage, as it helped my own faith at the time.
***PH writes , so far as I know the main sales of all my books are in non-US markets. I long ago resigned myself tomtge fact that my style and opinions do notvappeal to most Americans, and my absence from US TV means that I am an unperson there. ***
But his memory is fading fast here and yours along with it. I wouldn't want you to lose what platform you have in GB by constantly discouraging your own side. Do you honestly want young adults to pack up and leave?
***PH writes: Want? It's a matter of of personal indifference to me. But it is good advice. ****
Scoffing at voting? How many right-wing victories could you expect with those attitudes?
***PH : How many times do I have to state that I have abandoned active politics? ****
Anyway, Merry Christmas.
***I do not think he can just move, without apology, from personal abuse to cheery bonhomie. ***
Posted by: Californian | 13 December 2016 at 12:28 AM
I think we've pretty much reached Peak Hitchens to the extent that the "no-one likes me, I don't care" line is getting rather tired.
Good article overall, although I seriously question Mr Hitchens view that being a Christian means one generally dislikes their fellow humans.
As I understand it, we are fallen human beings, who are beyond being able to save ourselves. Hence the need for a saviour (and repentence - hence John the Baptist). But the early Christians at least understood the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth as ultimately being good news.
Ps great points about politics being ultimately a dead thing. Read Nicholas Berdyaev further on this point. Politics, and those who have an interest in it, generally belong to the world of the dead.
Posted by: John Doez | 12 December 2016 at 08:34 PM
I sure hope you don't grump your way into irrelevance, because you can only trade on your last name for so long.
***PH remarks: Heaven forfend that I should ever be 'relevant', and in my own country I don't think anyone would accuse me of trading on my last name, an astonishingly ill-mannered accusation in any case. What did I do to deserve it?**
Two things: There is no transgender issue. A few mentally ill individuals does not an issue make. This gets straight to what I've been thinking about recently. Conservatism should be observable and discernible from life and people without having to take classes or read difficult books. I was just at a public event in Davis, CA. An extremely liberal city in an extremely liberal state. They are filled up with high-status bicycles, craft beers, and sustainable landscaping (also known as "ugly"). And yet, at the venue there were men's and women's bathrooms with hundreds of people going in and out with no confusion or controversy. Where is all the anti-transism that's supposed to be oppressing people? I also went to an NBA game with the same effect, only this time there were 17,000 people who had no problems relieving themselves in the appropriate places. I can directly observe that there is no problem with separate bathrooms or gender confusion in society. There is no reason you should fear to speak plainly about this.
Number two: if you want to understand DJT a little better then I recommend you watch the Uncommon Knowledge interview with Kellyanne Conway. Watch the whole thing. I encountered her briefly back in the 90's when we were all wild and single. She was the hot new opinion maker under 30 and I found her to be much too cocky and ambitious for my taste. Plus, she wasn't really a conservative. Now she's almost 50, a mom of four, and the first woman to get her candidate to the presidency. But she's become humbler and definitely has her act together. That's an American right there. She's the type that makes DJT appealing to the rest of us. We have families, businesses, homes, plans... and we don't want government messing it all up for us. DJT understands all this because he's lived it. Again, nobody is truly a conservative who doesn't have something to conserve. Students are radicals? So what, they don't own anything yet. But the older middle class has lived and earned and built and bred and we stand to lose the most from their radicalism. DJT is our president now and we're trusting him and people like Conway to tackle this leviathon of anti-family political correctness and oppressive gov't.
Posted by: Californian | 12 December 2016 at 04:38 PM
Sue Sims: “I'd enjoy it more if it were better punctuated, and if the interviewer didn't suffer from an aversion to the quotative 'says'.”
I'm sure you're right, but I hadn't even noticed, as I was enjoying it too much.
JM: “This is the kind of social cue that even I can pick up on, and I try, jauntily, to steer the conversation into fresh waters.”
I wish that were more common!
Parts of this write up were quite hilarious. E.g. “Thankfully, Hitchens isn’t frugal with his opinions ...”
JM: “Regarding Brexit, it seems characteristic of Hitchens to appear wholly indifferent to, even dissatisfied with, the deliverance of an outcome he has spent “decades” advocating.”
Clearly not a regular reader of PH – such a huge misunderstanding.
““I mean I’ve got a plummy voice and all the rest of it”, he continues, but “those are the kind of people that I know, and how can one not like them. I do feel concern for them and the way that they are treated.””
I thought this was rather sweet. We like his plummy voice here. My eldest daughter heard him on YouTube the other day and said “he has a rather beautiful voice.”
PH: “Well of course it is because religion has died. In the absence of religion, political belief becomes a test, in the holder’s mind, of goodness.”
A good observation.
JM: “What about his rather bizarre co-option as a meme by certain student sub-cultures?”
Definitely better than being a gay icon. I hate to say this, but PH memes generally amuse me. Theory: hordes of fatherless, or virtually fatherless, lads in Britain are looking for a father-figure/mentor. I saw a video on Youtube via one of these young men which was suggesting ways for young men to find traditionally-minded young women, with a view towards marriage and family, so they're quite conservative.
I'm tempted to read “Blood, Class, and Nostalgia” now, but I have too many other things I ought to read first.
PH: “We seek constantly to reform the world, when our principle duty is to reform ourselves.”
Right.
JM: “But I do find him distinctly likable, generous with his time and his thoughts, and so much better company than scores of his detractors.”
No great surprise there, but good of him to say so.
Posted by: louiseyvette | 12 December 2016 at 01:03 PM
reevaluation of values he says, and complains that I am pleonastic! Please pardon the book recommendation: John Milbank and Adrian Pabst, The Politics of Virtue - Postliberalism and the human future (Rowman, 2016).
Posted by: Peter Starr | 12 December 2016 at 12:48 PM
In a 2005 interview with the Guardian newspaper, Christopher Hitchens commented:
"I took my wife to Hereford Cathedral last time we were both in Hay - I wanted to show my wife what evensong was like, because I, too, am a great admirer of the Cranmer prayer book and the King James Bible. And I was thunderstruck by the banality of the proceedings there, that the Church of England should throw away a pearl seems to me to be absolutely vandalistic."
The absurd irony of this comment seems lost on Christopher, who at this time must have been drafting God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.
Posted by: AJ Wentworth | 12 December 2016 at 11:05 AM
RE ;Peter Starr ..'Hard Work' now theres a word , place the word families behind it and it could almost be platitudinous , now not being a lounge lizard myself i do realise the immense dignity in 'hard work ' but if the gain , which in this country is demonstrably true ,is material gain then it could be argued that the current malaise is due somewhat to spiritual sloth. So the managing of decline i refer to involves a reevaluation of values perhaps less breaking of rocks perhaps.
Posted by: tony archer | 12 December 2016 at 10:39 AM
To Tony Archer, who writes: "our need to manage decline rather than rage at it..."
Managing decline and writing obituaries is all very well. As, in my view, the path up and out involves sustained hard work, there are better things to do with our time.
Posted by: Peter Starr | 12 December 2016 at 06:18 AM
I'd enjoy it more if it were better punctuated, and if the interviewer didn't suffer from an aversion to the quotative 'says'. I fear that 'Cherwell' lacks a competent sub-editor. On the other hand, Mr Maier is perceptive and unusually open to ideas other than his own: he seems more interested in eliciting Mr Hitchens' views and presenting them fairly than in inviting his readers to goggle at a dinosaur.
***PH writes: I am much of your opinion. The sub-editing is plainly rushed and not all that good, but the quality of the writing is good and the e interviewer listened to my answers, which is rare.***
Posted by: Sue Sims | 11 December 2016 at 10:51 PM
All but the most ardent UKIP supporters/voters will drift away from the Party when Brexit (sorry about that word) is 'in the bag'. British voters have learned down the years what a slippery, backsliding Party the Tories are and if it suited them and they could get away with it, Britain would still be subject to Bruxelles control in all but name ; UKIP's existence is for now at least serving the purpose, to a degree of holding the government to it's pledge.
Posted by: TERENCE COURTNADGE | 11 December 2016 at 08:54 PM
Enjoyed this interview. Thank you....
Posted by: David G | 11 December 2016 at 07:45 PM
Im aghast, the tightwads and i bet not even a small contribution towards 'a charity of your choice',
Posted by: tony archer | 11 December 2016 at 07:24 PM
Im sure these interviews are paying the bills ***PH gasps: He actually thinks I am *paid* to do these things? Crikey. No, I am not. ***
but like your brothers anti religious books i do think you could be wasting your talent on repetition without the same fun . We need more books perhaps something akin to Priestleys 'English Journey' albeit one recognising our need to manage decline rather than rage at it , i know you've given up on policy prescriptions but this could be a subtler way around it ....................just a thought.
Posted by: tony archer | 11 December 2016 at 05:12 PM
An elegant and witty report.
Posted by: Tony Dodd | 11 December 2016 at 03:22 PM