According to Wiki it is, a sudden change of position on an issue, also called a U-turn. I have never seen it defined any other way.
Christopher Hitchens: Dies
- Thread starter Goober
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According to Wiki it is, a sudden change of position on an issue, also called a U-turn. I have never seen it defined any other way.
In this case it wasnt really sudden. In his memoir, Hitch-22 he lays out how his opinion changed on Iraq and it took years for it to happen.
I disliked Hitchen's views on God, or the lack thereof, and thought his arguments shallow. I watched him debate Tony Blair, and he won by simply charming the audience........and due to fact Blair refused to push his points. Debate is a fight, with rapiers......when you are making a point, push it through.
Of course, Blair was hindered by the fact he is a Catholic.(for you Gerry)
I enjoyed immensely the fact that Hitchen's disagreed with the politically correct view of almost everything, and from what I have read of him personally, I probably would have liked him immensely.
He will be missed, by anyone that admires intellect for its own sake.
Ramming the point home:
The PJ Tatler » Christopher Hitchens at His Best: Rare Video of Hitch Disemboweling the American Left
I watched that video and when Hedges said Palestineans become suicide bombers out of despair, Hedges is clueless. What Hedges sees are confused poor brown people who just deserve sympathy. Hitchens is right, religion is filthy and time for it to end.
Only closed minded people consider changing ones mind "flip-flopping".
I respect politicians that change their minds and I wish more people would.
Depends on which kind of flip flopping you are referring to. Changing your stance to coincide with changing situations is good, changing you mind because someone made you look like an A$4hole is not!!! :lol:
Wll if you need to know something, ask me. If I do not know it I will ask my brother. If he does not know it, then no need to know it.:smile:
Page 281 Mesopotamia From Both Sides
"In July of 2007 my old magazing the New Statesman attempted to embarass me by reprinting an article I had written from Iraq in early 1976. In those days ran the snide prologue to the reproduction, "Young Hitchens saw Saddam as an up and coming secular socialist who would transform Iraq into a progressive model for the rest of the Middle East." The implied accusation of a U-turn or even of a turned coat-bothered me not at all. I had long since learned to ask John Maynard Keyne's question: "When the facts change then my opinion changes: and you, sir?" But I was nonetheless conscious of two conflicting desires. The first was to point out that my original essay hadn't got it all that wrong. The second was to give an account of how I had, in fact, almost completely reversed my opinion-and of how long such a process can take, and how painful it can be."
By the end of the first Gulf War he had changed his mind completely on Iraq after seeing first hand the things Saddam was doing to the Kurds and other parts of the population in Iraq. He made friends there, one of whom was assassinated in London on Saddam's orders.
This series of videos are easier to post than to type out a full chapter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSycD9BP6jk&feature=related
I too questioned the authenticity of Hitchens avowed atheism, especially at the end of his life. I'd read books and articles by him and thought this had more to do with intellectual conceit and de rigueur credentials for membership in the avant garde academic and book cultures he haunted. He liked playing the Devil's Advocate and was actually invited to do so by the Vatican in the cause for Mother Teresa's canonization.
I know when he was informed that many of religious opponents were praying him as he was dying he accepted their intercession with good grace and humour. Asked why, he noted that the physicist Neils Bohr kept a horseshoe for good luck over his office door. When mocked about his 'superstitions' by colleagues he responded "of course its nonsense, but apparently it works whether you believe it or not"
I know when he was informed that many of religious opponents were praying him as he was dying he accepted their intercession with good grace and humour. Asked why, he noted that the physicist Neils Bohr kept a horseshoe for good luck over his office door. When mocked about his 'superstitions' by colleagues he responded "of course its nonsense, but apparently it works whether you believe it or not"
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At least he did the right thing for humanity and destroyed himself in the end. I never liked the monumental asshole.