A note on language. Be even more suspicious than I was just telling you to be, of all those who employ the term "we" or "us" without your permission. This is another form of surreptitious conscription, designed to suggest that "we" are all agreed on "our" interests and identity. Populist authoritarians try to slip it past you; so do some kinds of literary critics ("our sensibilities are enraged...") Always ask who this "we" is; as often as not it's an attempt to smuggle tribalism through the customs. An absurd but sinister figure named Ron "Maulana" Karenga__he man who gave us Ebonics and Kwanzaa and much folkloric nationalist piffle__nce ran a political cult called "US." Its slogan__ddly catchy as well as illiterate__as "Wherever US is, We are." It turned out to be covertly financed by the FBI, though that's not the whole point of the story. Joseph Heller knew how the need to belong, and the need for security, can make people accept lethal and stupid conditions, and then act as if they had imposed them on themselves.
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Author
Christopher Hitchens
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343
Quotes
22
Works
Author Summary
About Christopher Hitchens on QuoteMust
Christopher Hitchens currently has 343 indexed quotes and 22 linked works on QuoteMust. This page is the canonical destination for that author archive.
Works
Books and titles linked to this author
A Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq
A Matter of Principle: Humanitarian Arguments for War in Iraq
Ancient Gonzo Wisdom: Interviews with Hunter S. Thompson
Arguably: Selected Essays
Christopher Hitchens and His Critics: Terror, Iraq, and the Left
For the Sake of Argument: Essays and Minority Reports
god is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
Hitch-22: A Memoir
Inequalities in Zimbabwe
Is Christianity Good for the World?
Letters to a Young Contrarian
Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays
Mortality
Prepared for the Worst: Selected Essays and Minority Reports
The Enemy
The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice
The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever
The Quotable Hitchens from Alcohol to Zionism: The Very Best of Christopher Hitchens
The Trial of Henry Kissinger
Thomas Paine's Rights of Man: A Biography
Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere
Why Orwell Matters
Quotes