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Letters to a Young Contrarian (Art of Mentoring (Paperback))

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He was a contributor to Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, World Affairs, The Nation, Slate, Free Inquiry and a variety of other media outlets.

One might not agree with all of his views but for the most part the book embodies the feeling implied in its title of a wise old sage trying to impart some of life's most important lessons on an uninitiated, naive but eager and vital neophyte. And these same people, who would not surrender the principles that attracted them to the struggle in the first place, were obliterated and defamed as mere posturing “individuals” who furthermore dared to oppose themselves to “history. Even the term "iconoclast" is seldom used negatively, but rather to suggest that the breaking of images is a harmless discharge of energy.

Topics such as religion, communism, racism, identity politics, and politicians from both ends of the spectrum are all covered from his own perspective. 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. There is something awry when a well-rewarded columnist for Vanity Fair speaks of being "an exile or outcast on a remote shore. He understands the importance of disagreement-to personal integrity, to informed discussion, to true progress-heck, to democracy itself.

People who speak their views clearly, intelligently, and elegantly are severely lacking in the fetid mainstream of United States’ (and beyond’s?

Methinks it is time to pour myself some Johnnie Walker Black (neat) in his dignified honor (not to be construed as worship).

Secondly, one could read this as a treatise on several of Christopher Hitchens' favorite topics, ranging from misspent socialist youth to his journalism days to the preview of coming anti-religious attractions phase.This tendency has often been satirised—the overweight caucus of the Cherokee transgender disabled lesbian faction demands a hearing on its needs—but never satirised enough. There even exist official phrases of approbation for this tendency, of which the latest is the supposedly praiseworthy ability to "think outside the box". It has been said that many stars have died in their advanced years long after it would have been tragic. 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. Your last letter reached me just as I was reading the essays of Aldous Huxley, creator of our notion of a "Brave New World".

As such, the book lends itself well to anyone in such a position, be they a supporter of his views or not. As much as I love his railings against religion (around which most of his debates are centered), it is too bad that some people think that was the sole domain of his brilliance (or according to his detractors, his calumny/misguidedness). However, this can't alter the fact that in life we make progress by conflict and in mental life by argument and disputation. However, this is not strictly an anti-religious polemic like his acerbic, if slightly inferior god is Not Great, but a multifaceted deconstruction of conventional wisdom and reverence.the forces of piety have always and everywhere been the sworn enemy of the open mind and the open book. Hitchens exhibits precisely the combination of indignation and intellect that he recommends to others.

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