Letters to a Young Contrarian (Art of Mentoring (Paperback))

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Nuclear armaments are the most conspicuous example; as you read this you are in effect wearing a military uniform and sitting in a very exposed trench.

However, this can't alter the fact that in life we make progress by conflict and in mental life by argument and disputation. Epigrammatic, spunky, witty, in your face, timeless and timely, this book is everything you would expect from a mentoring contrarian.Christians, for example, declare me redeemed by a human sacrifice that occurred thousands of years before I was born.

There is not even a strand of chewing gum to connect the premise to the conclusion; the speaker simply assumes what he has to prove. Even the term "iconoclast" is seldom used negatively, but rather to suggest that the breaking of images is a harmless discharge of energy. Above all, Letters to a Young Contrarian is necessary for its exploration of the role of the dissenter in a time of too much politeness. A short, powerful book which simultaneously challenges us to question orthodoxies, and gives us the tools and encouragement to do so.

However, Hitchens' lucid prose style, his absolute moral clarity and wonderful range of literary and political references eventually brought me round. Always ask who this 'we' is; as often as not it's an attempt to smuggle tribalism through the customs.