“Edmund Burke:
Reactionary Prophet”
A review of Burke’s Reflections
on the revolution in France. This is
by far the most dense and complex analytical piece of the collection so far. The essay title refers to Hitchens' argument
that Burke was not simply the “father of modern conservatism,” as Karl Marx,
Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine would have it (very strange bed fellows). He
was also supported the liberal positions of his Whig party, denounced the slave
trade and supported the American Revolution. Hitchens argues that he was
prophetic in his prediction that the French Revolution would not lead to a
stable French democratic republic but, instead, to Bonapartism. Hitchens
describes Burke’s position as “the first
serious argument that revolutions devour their own children and turn into their
own opposites.” Best quote is about
those jumping to overly simplistic conclusions about Burke, ”It is a frequent vice
of radical polemic to assert, and even to believe, that once you have found the
lowest motive for an antagonist, you have identified the correct one.”
New learning: Rosa Luxemburg, Polish/German Marxist theorist
and co-founder of the German Communist Party, once warned Lenin “that revolution can move swiftly from the
dictatorship of a class to the dictatorship of a party, to be followed by the
dictatorship of a committee of that party and eventually by the rule of a
single man who will soon enough dispense with that committee.”
New word: pelf = Money, especially when
gained in a dishonest or dishonorable way.
“Samuel Johnson:
Demons and Dictionaries”
A review of Peter Martin’s Samuel Johnson: A Biography. The main draw of this essay if Hitchens' recounting of the origin of many of Johnson’s observations, other great men of
his day that Johnson was in conflict with and the key events and conditions
that drove Johnson’s life. Most notably, Johnson’s “fear of divine punishment…self
loathing at his own laziness and greed and inadequacy.” Hitchens says about
Johnson that “teasing is often a sign of misery” and that his “grandeur is
diminished the more we come to know…the eminence of those with whom he did
battle,’ including David Hume, John Wilkes and Adam Smith.
New learning: Johnson’s quip, “patriotism is the last refuge
of a scoundrel” is specifically about John Wilkes leadership of the radical
political faction called the patriots.
New word: amanuensis = a person hired to write or type what
another dictates.
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