Christopher Hitchens on the U.S. Free Press (1983 - Part 6)

November 7, 1983 http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww....

Watch the full program: http://thefilmarchived.blogspot.com/2010/07/christopher-hitchens-on-ronald-re...

Hitchens became a socialist "largely [as] the outcome of a study of history, taking sides ... in the battles over industrialism and war and empire". In 2001, he told Rhys Southan of Reason magazine that he could no longer say "I am a socialist". Socialists, he claimed, had ceased to offer a positive alternative to the capitalist system. Capitalism had become the more revolutionary economic system, and he welcomed globalisation as "innovative and internationalist". He suggested that he had returned to his early, pre-socialist libertarianism, having come to attach great value to the freedom of the individual from the state and moral authoritarians.

In 2006 in a town hall meeting in Pennsylvania debating the Jewish Tradition with Martin Amis, Hitchens commented on his political philosophy by stating "I am no longer a socialist, but I still am a Marxist." In 2009, in an article for The Atlantic entitled "The Revenge of Karl Marx," Hitchens frames the late-2000s recession in terms of Marx's economic analysis and notes how much Marx admired the capitalist system he was calling for the end of, but says that Marx ultimately failed to grasp how revolutionary capitalist innovation was. Hitchens was and still is a strong admirer of Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, commenting that "[Che's] death meant a lot to me and countless like me at the time, he was a role model, albeit an impossible one for us bourgeois romantics insofar as he went and did what revolutionaries were meant to do — fought and died for his beliefs." In a 1997 essay, however, he distanced himself somewhat from some of Che's actions.

He continues to regard both Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky as great men, and the October Revolution as a necessary event in the modernization of Russia. In 2005, Hitchens praised Lenin's creation of "secular Russia" and his destruction of the Russian Orthodox Church, describing it as "an absolute warren of backwardness and evil and superstition." In an interview with Radar in 2007, Hitchens said that if the Christian right's agenda were implemented in the United States "It wouldn't last very long and would, I hope, lead to civil war, which they will lose, but for which it would be a great pleasure to take part."

The years after the fatwa issued against Salman Rushdie also saw him looking for allies and friends. In the United States he became increasingly critical of what he called "excuse making" on the left. At the same time, he was attracted to the foreign policy ideas of some on the Republican right that promoted pro-liberalism intervention, especially the neoconservative group that included Paul Wolfowitz. Around this time, he befriended the Iraqi dissident and businessman Ahmed Chalabi. In 2004, Hitchens stated that neoconservative support for US intervention in Iraq convinced him that he was "on the same side as the neo-conservatives" when it came to contemporary foreign policy issues. He has also been known to refer to his association with "temporary neocon allies."

Hitchens would elaborate on his political views and ideological shift in a discussion with Eric Alterman on Bloggingheads.tv. In this discussion Hitchens revealed himself as a supporter of Ralph Nader in the 2000 U.S. presidential election, who was disenchanted with the candidacy of both George W. Bush and Al Gore. Prior to 11 September 2001, and the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, Hitchens was highly critical of Bush's "non-interventionist" foreign policy. He has also criticized Bush's support of intelligent design and capital punishment.

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[Freethinker12341]

wait, he says around 3:23 that no other country has the kind of freedom that the US press has. what about Canada and Britain, etc? is America really that much freerer in terms of its press? or was that way back in 1983?

[thefilmarchive]

@Freethinker12341 He addressed this question with regard to Britain a few years later: watch?v=GD1F_iLBrxU

[TheNatealator]

@petey1892 The day has come, and it is sad :(

[AmandaFeetJeansFan]

that guy with gray hair DOES NOT AGE

[Yowzoe]

Free thinker, clear thinker, critical thinker--he's been an inspiration for so many of us.

[benehan]

he had such a boyish face its great

[SaltedSlug85]

LoL. Did he purposely ask him a different question to not let him answer the question about Israel?

[Laprevraven]

It is a very sad day indeed.....Oh look a nickel!

[lafontaine13]

Hitchens has inspired me to raise my children as free thinkers, and redouble my efforts to ensure they are as well read as possible

[lafontaine13]

@qtutoringhelps its bizarre isnt it?

[qtutoringhelps]

Brian Lamb's age must be fixed not variable.

[RaminHAL9001]

Same Hitchens I always knew (vicariously through his work). Even back then, his opinions on the first amendment were as solid as ever. The only difference is he is not nearly as eloquent as he was in later years -- which means as ineloquent as I am now, I am not hopeless, and perhaps maybe, just maybe, could become the respectable speaker Christopher Hitchens was nearer the end of his life.

[karangmail15]

oh hitch!!! as the other comments note, drawing and playing tick-tack-toe with that smirk on his face at 4:03