How dismal it is to see present day Americans yearning for the very orthodoxy that their country was founded to escape.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the irony of Americans longing for traditional beliefs that the nation was established to move away from.
Christopher Hitchens critiques the modern American tendency to embrace orthodox beliefs that contradict the foundational principles of freedom and progress. He suggests a disillusionment with the historical context, emphasizing the irony in fundamentally reverting to ideologies that the country’s founders sought to escape.
In practice
In a discussion about modern political trends, this quote can highlight concerns over societal regress.
In a public dialogue with Salman in London he [Edward Said] had once described the Palestinian plight as one where his people, expelled and dispossessed by Jewish victors, were in the unique historical position of being 'the victims of the victims': there was something quasi-Christian, I thought, in the apparent humility of that statement.
What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
Never ask while you are doing it if what you are doing is fun. Don't introduce even your most reliably witty acquaintance as someone who will set the table on a roar.
[E]xceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.
The worst days are when you feel foggy in the head - chemo-brain they call it. It's awful because you feel boring. As well as bored. And stupid. And resigned.
Let me tell you something: for hundreds of thousands of years, this kind of discussion would have been impossible to have, or those like us would have been having it at the risk of our lives. Religion now comes to us in this smiley-face, ingratiating way — because it’s had to give so much more ground and because we know so much more. But you’ve got no right to forget the way it behaved when it was strong, and when it really did believe that it had God on its side.
It is hard not to see into the future, faced with today's blind architecture - a thousand times more stupid and more revolting than that of other ages. How bored we shall be inside!
Glorious indeed is the world of God around us, but more glorious the world of God within us.
I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.
The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.
But think about how evil that is for one man to think that he's actually more valuable than a woman, because as a human being your worth is immeasurable.
I have often asked myself whether, given the choice, I would choose to have manic-depressive illness. If lithium were not available to me, or didn't work for me, the answer would be a simple no... and it would be an answer laced with terror. But lithium does work for me, and therefore I can afford to pose the question. Strangely enough, I think I would choose to have it. It's complicated.
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