I have never understood my compatriots of the Atheist nation who railed so fiercely against Hitchens that they could not recognize his talents as a writer and debater for the cause of Atheism. His politics were a monstrosity, surely few would contest this, but these are separate from his extraordinary and exemplary contributions to the Atheist agenda. If anything we needed someone like him, who could potentially bridge the gap to Right Wing America and show them you can still be a war mongering, free market capitalist stooge without God. This is good when you consider the amount of them which I imagine would love to see us all in gulags. I was just reading through comments on various obituaries and couldn't help but find it striking how many people, Atheists among them, were dismissive of him even in death. We are unlikely to find someone with his unique perspective on the world, with the same strength of will and an equally well equipped intellect in our lifetime and there's something to be said for this sort of loss.
One other thing to be said for Hitchens is that the man was never mediocre. He was polarizing. You loved him or you hated him. You championed his words or you rejected them with disgust. You were never unsure of where you stood with this giant, even having never met him personally I could tell you without doubt where we would agree and disagree. When he rose he did so to new heights and when he failed, he failed spectacularly. Few men can boast that they lived a life where there was rarely a dull moment and which lacked any trace of mundanity; Christopher Hitchens was such a man.
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