Endless praise and adoration, limitless abnegation and abjection of self; a celestial North Korea.
Interpretation
The quote critiques the dangers of excessive adoration and self-denial, comparing it to a totalitarian regime.
Christopher Hitchens uses this provocative analogy to highlight the absurdity and danger of a culture that values endless praise and self-abnegation, suggesting that such attitudes can lead to a loss of individual identity and freedom, akin to living under a totalitarian state. By equating this mindset to a 'celestial North Korea', he implies that such ideologies, while seemingly benign or even noble, can be deeply oppressive and stifling.
In practice
In a discussion about the dangers of authoritarianism, one might quote Hitchens to illustrate the risks of absolute devotion to an ideology.
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 β because itβs had to give so much more ground and because we know so much more. But youβve 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.
The human world is a long way from meeting the needs of the present, and it is borrowing massively from the future - not only by piling up money debt, but also by degrading the resources from which all real wealth ultimately comes.
The things that have acquired unity are these: Heaven by unity has become clear; Earth by unity has become steady; The Spirit by unity has become spiritual; The Valley by unity has become full; All things by unity have come into existence.
Be a terror to the butchers, that they may be fair in their weight; and keep hucksters and fraudulent dealers in awe, for the same reason.
But would you kindly ponder this question: What would your good do if evil didn't exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared? After all, shadows are cast by things and people. Here is the shadow of my sword. But shadows also come from trees and living beings. Do you want to strip the earth of all trees and living things just because of your fantasy of enjoying naked light? You're stupid.
there is a loneliness in this world so great that you can see it in the slow movement of the hands of a clock
The specific patterns, out of which a building or a town is made_x000D_ may be alive or dead. To the extent they are alive, they let our inner_x000D_ forces loose, and, set us free; but when they are dead they keep_x000D_ us locked in inner conflict.
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