The moral atheist

All this fire and bleeding passion would seem to require a moral law, even a holy law. But Hitchens produces outrage, empathy and solidarity without it…

Hitchens has now been given his most astounding assignment, a visit to what he calls in a Vanity Fair article “the sick country.” His account is raw, honest and impressive. He reports “a gnawing sense of waste” and the loss of “chest hair that was once the toast of two continents.”

“To the dumb question ‘Why me?’ the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply: Why not?” He is, in some ways, a particularly reliable, clear-eyed witness — unclouded by sentiment, free from comforting illusions, even illusions I view as truths. It is like watching a man assault Everest with only a can opener and a Q-tip. There is honor in the attempt. And the longer the assignment continues, the better for all of us.