Thursday, December 22, 2005

God bless you, Mr. Hitchens

I have a strong love-hate relationship with Christopher Hitchens. Mostly, he loves hearing himself talk and I hate it.

However, I often find myself in agreement with Mr. Hitchens when he discusses religion, and in particular the problematic intersections of religion and public policy and culture. Case in point, it's Christmas again, and Mr. Hitchens is not terribly happy about it.

Hmm. . . Seems to me that I've written more about Christopher Hitchens in the past.

1 comment:

Tim said...

It's interesting the way that fans of Christmas like to present themselves as being persecuted or threatened by generic holiday greetings -- it reminds me of the way white men often present themselves as "under attack" by immigration, affirmative action, etc. It's motivated by entitlement and complacency, but wedded to the persecuted minority discourse that's become the only way to state a grievance when it comes to racial, ethnic, or religious identity. So God damn them everyone indeed.

At the same time, I broke out laughing when Jim Carrey came on Conan the other night and said, "'Happy Holidays'? Do you mean 'Merry Christmas'? In fact, I'll take it one step further -- I'll wish you a Christy, Christy good time."