An obituary of sort

Christopher Hitchens 1949-2011

I am writing this for two sad reasons, the first one is that Christopher Hitchens is dead, the second one is the sad state of the Swedish obituaries.
Maybe he wasn't that big in Sweden, definitely not as big as he was in the US or the UK. We are talking about a man so influential that the New York Times stopped the presses to get his obituary in the paper. I doubt that any Swedish paper stopped their presses. And it is sad that the media in Sweden never understood his greatness; not that he was always right, but he would always argue his point and ask uncomfortable questions and not seldom deliver uncomfortable facts.
But I can understand that he wasn't popular in Sweden since he was a fierce debater in that intellectual stile which appear to be shun by the Swedish media. It would not do to show that intelligence and facts could be used in a debate instead of conviction and opinions. Not that Christopher Hitchens didn't have opinions but he, as far as I can tell, never argued that his convictions in themselves were enough of an argument.
So what about the man himself?
I often didn't agree with him, I have met him, not only heard him speak but actually been at the same party and exchanged a few words with him. I was not starstruck by him although his eloquence is admirable. But I can understand those who idolised him because he was a very unique man, he smoked, and he clearly drank, and he wrote and spoke all with the same uncompromising zeal.
I valued his critique of religion, because as a Christian and secularist, I believe that all religions should be criticized and even ridiculed. A crazy thing as a religious belief deserve ridicule and only people who can stand their believes being ridiculed should be allowed to be religious. I much rather live in an world there people like Hitchens or even people much, much less well spoken than him, can insult religion as much as they want, than in a world there people are under pressure not to offend. It is sometimes argued that the freedom of speech has become a “religion” in the west and that it is necessary to understand that it must be placed on the same level as other religions and learn to “play nice”. That is pure humbug, and I think Hitchens would agree with me on that. (Though since he is dead we will never know.) To listen to people you don't agree with will make your thoughts evolve and if freedom of speech is restricted, humanity will suffer.
That is why I am sad, because a great combatant in the struggle for humanity has passed away. I know that he didn't believe, but I hope he was wrong and although I don't agree with drinking I hope he has found his place at the big bar in heaven.