Reality Check: Truth and Consequences

Russia and Syria, the next Russian President, Bradley Manning goes to pre-trial, Zynga goes to Wall Street, and prominent journalist Christopher Hitchens does not go to heaven or hell.

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Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 - 15 December 2011)

Do you want to know something really kinda pathetic?

I knew Christopher Hitchens was going to die fairly soon ever since he was diagnosed with esophagus cancer in 2010. So, I didn't read any of the articles he wrote since then. I didn't watch any of the TV appearances, didn't look at any youtube clips of his I hadn't yet seen. I purposely stayed out of the dying lion's territory but not out of respect for a man being cut down by a fairly vicious illness. In fact, the dying Hitchens had more roar in him than the disheveled, often drunk, 'healthy' Hitchens had.

I carefully put all his latest output aside, the magazines with his articles have their own space on my bookshelf, there's a file labelled "The Hitch" on my computer and it's pretty darn full of his words, his voice, his passion, his truth.

You see, this was my way of 'saving' Christopher Hitchens.

No other journalist, in my life, has inspired, moved, angered, frustrated, elated, amused, and/or made me want to step up my writing game, more than Christopher Hitchens. I have deliberately deprived myself of his work so as to have a stash of fresh Hitch after his inevitable death.

Here's another confession: I was attracted to the Scotch-guzzling, chain-smoking antithesis of, nevermind physical beauty, he was the opposite of physical HEALTH even before his cancer diagnosis. It was his mind that turned me on, even when I TOTALLY disagreed with him.

Lots of people thought he was nothing more than a shit-disturber with a posh British accent. Thing is, they were right. He stirred shit. He called people in power on their bullshit and he didn't do it in a pretty, career-friendly way. He never apologised for his stance on religion, feminism, liberalism or conservatism and stuck to his convictions in a manner that was both pissed off and hopeful.

The Hitch also had a way with a one-line zinger. On the death of American televangelist Jerry Falwell: “If [Falwell] had been given an enema, he could have been buried in a matchbox.”

Even the smell of scotch makes me dry-heave, so tonight I'm gonna symbolically pour one out for him and I will reluctantly but with deep appreciation, go to my bookshelf and pull out a magazine I had been using to 'save' The Hitch. I'm glad I did.

For today's Reality Check, I put together some choice Hitch soundbites which host Hal Rock presented like this: