HITCHENS NOT LIKE ORWELL

To Orwell Today,

Dear Jackie,

You might be interested in hearing Christopher Hitchens talking about George Orwell and why he matters (having written the book so entitled).

Christopher Hitchens, interview on In-Depth, CSPAN, Sep 2, 2007

The first 5 minutes is largely about Orwell. Also “Coming up for Air”, is listed by Hitchens as one of his favourite books (one of mine too!).

Best wishes,
Winston Smith (Stephen Maule)

Greetings Winston (Stephen),

Yes, I'm familiar with what Christopher Hitchens has to say on such topics as Orwell, JFK, Mother Teresa etc, etc.

The latter two - JKF and Mother Teresa - he's trashed to such a degree he's become infamous for it.

Hitchens wrote a diatribe against her entitled THE MISSIONARY POSITION: MOTHER TERESA IN THEORY AND PRACTICE.

To refute Hitchens' slander of JFK I wrote the article JFK POISON PEN KILLERS.

Recently Hitchens has been given lots of airtime in the mainstream press to denigrate God and Christianity - although the two don't necessarily go hand-in-hand, ie you don't have to believe in the writings in the Judeo-Christian Bible to believe in God. He's promoting his latest book entitled GOD IS NOT GREAT: HOW RELIGION POISONS EVERYTHING.

Naive people watching him speak take his words against God and religion to heart, not knowing that Hitchens is an atheist and not objective on the subject.

Also, I don't approve of Hitchens portraying himself as a "modern day Orwell" and saying he knows what Orwell would say or think on any given topic. For example, Hitchens has been saying for all these years since 2001 that Orwell would have supported the war on Iraq (as does Hitchens) and that is absolute doublespeak.

Anyone who knows anything about Orwell (or who's read "1984") knows that he would be AGAINST the war on Iraq, just as he was against WWII and most every other war, realizing as he did that War is a racket meant to bring Big Brother to power and keep it in power. See Ministry of Peace and Ministry of Plenty and Reality Control.

I own copies of Hitchens' books WHY ORWELL MATTERS and NO ONE LEFT TO LIE TO and they are sources of some interesting information as he does have an insider perspective. But they aren't biographies, more like yellow journalism. You'll notice that WHY ORWELL MATTERS isn't listed in my RECOMMENDED BOOKS ON ORWELL.

Anyhow, I did go and watch that YouTube video of the Hitchens interview you sent and wasn't that surprised to see that one of his favourite authors is Karl Marx and one of his favourite books is one by Karl Marx.

Hitchens is known as being - in his earlier years - a far-left (ie communist) journalist who is presently a far-right (ie corporate capitalist) journalist who is given lots of soapbox opportunity by the Ministry of Truth and is quite influential, especially with young adults, similar to Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore. They're all a bit like the pigs in ANIMAL FARM, walking on two legs instead of four, cavorting with communists AND capitalists.

All the best,
Jackie Jura

PS - I, too, love COMING UP FOR AIR (Orwell's 7th book) and saw the one-man play when it came to town a couple of years ago. It was hilarious! See ORWELL'S CUFA ON STAGE

WHY HITCHENS DOESN'T MATTER (reader Alison wonders why Hitchens' book "Why Orwell Matters" isn't on my list of recommended reading)

Mother Teresa prayers 10 years on ("the day to remember her") & Mother Teresa dies at 87 yrs-old (devoted life to sick & poor). Herald/BBC, Sep 6, 2007

Jackie Jura
~ an independent researcher monitoring local, national and international events ~

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