n e u f n e u f: hitchens' bodhisattvatude part deux

30 July 2008

hitchens' bodhisattvatude part deux

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Was discussing Christopher Hitchens letting himself in for waterboarding with a friend recently, and he was amazed at the fullness of my approval of such a selfless act. He didn't think it was selfless at all, that Hitchens was just grandstanding. I vociferously disagreed. And right here is proof of the favor he did all mankind. Neil Gaiman actually mentioned it on his blog.

This is not small. As much as I like Neil Gaiman's regular novels -- as opposed to his graphic ones and screenplays for dumb computer animation movies -- I have to say I'm developing an attitude about what appears to be a complete lack of social consciousness there. I try to visit his place frequently, as part of my field tripping into popular psychology, and he's a kid in a candy store about being successful at what he loves to do... fool around and daydream. Today I find that he has taken note of Hitchens, now has a more vivid and meaningful impression of the horrors we are inflicting on our fellow man. Obviously, obviously, because he bothered to share it with his large readership, to, what? half of? whom this is breaking news.

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