Just checking Michelle’s blog today, I realized she had some nice things to say about the entry on happiness from the other day. Thanks Michelle! I also noticed she mentioned the infamous Christopher Hitchens’ article from Vanity Fair magazine entitled Why Woman aren’t Funny.
Now, in the not too dim and distant, Hitchens was turning out to be one of the great contrarians of his generation. He took on a number of issues that most considered settled (The Balkan War, the sanctity of Mother Theresa), and exploded them, providing I think, an excellent (if not radical) take on conventional wisdom. I liked reading Hitchens in much the same way one enjoys any great deconstructionist – it’s a lot of fun to read popular opinion cut to shreds.
Now, I always new Hitchens wasn’t going to be a new Nietzsche (who basically wiped the floor with the past 2000 years of western history, religion, and philosophy proving he was one of the greatest [and perhaps craziest] minds of the last century), but I knew he was headed downhill (way downhill) when he jumped on the neo-conservative bandwagon following the invasion of Iraq.
If the Vanity Fair article posted above proves anything, it shows that he’s completely lost his grip on where to use the critic’s razor. For a more complete dressing down, look here, and here.
The problem with the American political left (and now I’m sounding like a parrot of big media) is that they are increasingly looking more and more like the political right. Hitchens sudden conservativism is certainly symptomatic of the larger problem. What this means, of course, is that the American public is left without any true alternatives to the current monolithic two party system. When both democrats and republicans are spouting almost the same rhetoric (and then denying they ever did any thing of the kind), what can young voters hope for come 2008? Everyone seems to want change, but it’s difficult to imagine it happening when those in Washington all vote and act so much alike.
Awesome point, Jon!!
and thanks for reading my blog
I have been noticing the sameness of opinion of both parties in the gouvernement.
The 2 party system is useless anyway, because now we are voting for parties, not people. yuck.
But my favorite part about the whole happiness theme from the article you mentioned is the 3 ways to long lasting happiness: gratitude, kindness, and optimism. I do believe that these fit into Jesus’ teachings, as well as Kharma (if you watch ‘My name is Earl’ on NBC, we are taught these priniciples in an unorthodox way
yes, I can hardly stomach the notion of voting for a ‘party’ but I think that just means I really am a 22 year old. not so long ago, i think many people would have considered voting along party lines as completely normal – indeed, standard.
times (and people) do change though.
those are three darn good virtues you listed as well. they may not lead everyone in every situation to some kind of happiness, but they are not a bad start.
the message of the new testament (jesus), the pali cannons (buddha), the Qu’ran (mohammed), the upanishads (krishna), and even a great deal of modern philosophy (camus, kierkegaard) all agree on those virtues as tenets of an ethical life – maybe that dosen’t mean much in the long run, but that’s not a bad group of people to agree with either!
Back to hitchens – it’s becoming increasingly clear that those virtues are dissapearing from his writing – one can be critical and kind, but it takes a bit more than the kind of effort he seems to be putting forth lately.