Christopher Hitchens RIP (On the Heights of Skepticism & Stoicism - The Laughing Lions)

"Great is he, who conquers the frightful. Sublime is he, who, while succumbing to it, fears it not."
Philosopher Schiller

"If we spend time in it [the vast spaces of nature], they may help us to accept more graciously the great, unfathomable events that molest our lives and will inevitably return us to dust."
(Alain de Botton)


The Courage to Be and the Courage not to Be.
"To take into the inmost shrine of the soul the irresistible forces whose puppets we seem to be -- Death and change, the irrevocableness of the past, and the powerlessness of man before the blind hurry of the universe from vanity to vanity -- to feel these things and know them is to conquer them."
Bertrand Russell

"Freud was a hero. He descended to the Underworld and met there stark terrors. He carried with him his theory as a Medusa's head which turned these terrors to stone."
psychiatrist R. D. Laing

"A young shepherd I saw, writhing, gagging, in spasms, his face distorted, and a heavy black snake hung out of his mouth. Had I ever seen so much nausea and pale dread on one face? He seemed to have been asleep when the snake crawled into his throat, and there bit itself fast. My hand tore at the snake and tore in vain; it did not tear the snake out of his throat. Then it cried out of me; "Bite! Bite its head off! Bite!" Thus it cried out of me — my dread, my hatred, my nausea, my pity, all that is good and wicked in me cried out of me with a single cry.

The shepherd, however, bit as my cry counseled him; he bit with a good bite. Far away he spewed the head of the snake — and he jumped up. No longer shepherd. no longer human — one changed, radiant, laughing! Never yet on earth has a human being laughed as he laughed! O my brothers, I heard a laughter that was no human laughter; and now a thirst gnaws at me, a longing that never grows still. My longing for this laughter gnaws at me; oh, how do I bear to go on living! And how could I bear to die now!"
Thus Spoke Zarathustra

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[garethb1961]

Awesome! On this day of Hitchen's death I have read and heard do much hate and bile and stupidity. This has cheered me up. Beautiful!

[sirdavidbowie]

don't worry people - we have died already - .... so be happy to be alive this time...right now.

Just breathe

[JahJah920]

@richter75

You make your purpose now, this is all that matters.

[richter75]

@finemind100 But in a billion years, was there any point of us being lucky at this flash of a second?

[EgoKatalepsis]

@rg0057 Oh but has Hitchens truly disappeared?

[finemind100]

It is a privilege to be born at all, it is an improbable event that the Earth is just the right distance from the sun to harbour life. We are so, so, so, so, SO lucky to be here. Christopher Hitchens is a great wordsmith, a great outside the box thinker.

[jholeify]

@garethb1961 the best thing to do is not listen/acknowledge those religious trolls who make those comments about him. just remember Hitchens for the brilliant man that he was

[rg0057]

The title seems at odds with the content. There is no Hitchens to rest.

[dannylucilla]

alan watts is in there, too...

[Sodom616]

almost cried.....beautiful video!