Would have helped to have had Hitchens's actual remarks quoted somewhere, say, in description.

I keep this quote on my desk. In business, life, love… this is a powerful insight. I was lucky enough to meet Christopher while he was on a speaking tour in Montana toward the end of his life. He was a giant of a personality. We all miss him.

We are all guilty of this one-just from living in the UK for the last 20 years and not removing those in power.

@@dimension9680 - Or remaining silent when the authorities spout the latest idiotic dogma of the transgender lobby.

@@dimension9680 How would you have done that? Even an "off" would just result in the next shark tooth poping up.. Never choose illegal measures, if for no other reason, that you plant the seed of that becoming "the way", destroying some of the best things about democracy ("Democracy - the system that replaces of idiots deciding with weapons, to a system of idiots deciding with votes". Knud Vedel ca. 2010)

Better'n Hitchens. A chain-smoking, slobbering drunk/alcoholic, Wikipedia intellect whom had to protect his naked posturing with threat of vitriol and, that redoubt of all frauds, talking over challenges. 'Gad-fly' was his obvious ambition both reflecting his utter absence of substance and phony 'anti-hero/outlaw/dangerous' schtick.

Good one.

A wonderfully verbose mouthpiece for the elite. No more no less.

There are no regrets when you learn from your errors. You can only learn from your errors by asking God to show you. That's why Hitchens ended up with regret.

Same.

@@robertdouglas8895 Bullshit

Christopher Hitchens said much that was thought-provoking; but not everything he believed is necessarily empirically true, and in fact he moderated his views on various subjects across his time in the spotlight. I liked him for the most part. It warmed my spirit that he and Peter reconciled in time. And that was an even bigger lesson: that there are aspects to this life that are more important than all else. Accepting and living by differences (which we used to do), and understanding that hearing isn't the same as listening. Both Hitchens brothers have experienced life in ways few others of comparable intellect will. We are blessed to have had Christopher, and continue to have Peter.

One spends a good bit of time wondering, “ What would Christopher Hitchens have to say about this … “

You do, the internet will keep him on life support until we lose electricity in some petty ideological dispute.

@NolanEP for some reason can't reply to your alpha question where you placed it??? By 'alpha' read characteristics of the alpha. Courage, resilience, self-dependent etc.

True, but he has been dead for quite some time now. All we can do is to do the best we can to embody the qualities that we admired about him and continue on.

@@peterclark6290 Or until someone thinks, “Hitchens is too dangerous and must cancel him, even in death.”

I believe you have dementia...

I agree completely. Regrets are pointless. If you chose wrong, fix it. Undo-ing is not an option. If you want something different, choose different. The only unchangeable action is death.

Slightly disagree. There are certain actions that demand personal regret for a lifetime. By that I mean actions that were taken ... and not the being caught for taking them. Unfortunately, many of the people who take these actions are not capable of regret .... you require a conscience to be able to regret! Just saying!

Exactly. That simple. We make it that simple, on purpose, so we can’t find reasons to weasel out if it.

I could not be friends with people who are incapable of hearing anything I have to say. I don't like narrow minded or weak people.

@@ohsweetmystery agreed

You just want a safe space for as long as possible, and I don’t think it’s worth it anymore

That's actually quite flawed if you don't restrain it in some form. If it involves a gun then you rather not....even be there. If it involves loosing one opportunity to be honest...then....

I love Douglas too, but no one alive is even close to being the polemicist as Hitch was.

The west colonised the entire planet , and this guy titles his book war on the west? Lol

I think the criticism made is valid, I hated the Iraq and Afghanistan War 20 years and don’t think government learned anything, nor respects the people that served and colonization happened, but even recognize whether it was the British Empire or American Empire a lot of atrocities occurred without question. I still value the importance of protecting Western civilization, because it is the best, but is being rotten from the inside out by people who want to sabotage it and undermine the public.

Hitch was a genius, Douglas is nothing more than a zionist twinkle toed sophist shill. That is all.

I thought I was the only one! Thanks

Well put

The 'things you are ashamed of'..... you obviously do have regrets. Regrets are essential, otherwise you would be saying you are not ashamed of the things you did, as if you didn't care either way. You clearly do.

@@hookooekoo2 If I never did those things, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Ashamed is not regret. I am grateful that that I can grow. So in a way, I am more grateful of having done things I am ashamed of than I am regretful of doing things that I am ashamed of. Words mean something a little bit different to each of us. I have no place in my life for your definition of regret.

@@Tian.S So you are glad you did the things you are ashamed of?

Reminds me of WHO ASKED YOU???

@@barryswinton3224rude

It isn't always that way though pal you can choose "right" and still regret it

@@stoicsavage509 I think there needs to be a word that differentiates the feeling you get from choosing wrong. I don’t know what that word would be if not regret.

@@tombombadyl4535 ye I agree but you can make decision that is deemed right at that moment only to regret it later... Right or wrong... Regret or not, its not written in stone

@@stoicsavage509 You could argue that every decision you’ve ever made has come at a cost. I think most commonly the word is used to mean you regret their choice. It’s semantics.

@@tombombadyl4535 thats a completely different argument though bro... We were talking about regret

We've got one that can see

@@vlnow I would humbly suggest that all things perceived for the future CAN be changed (other than the certainty of death of course). Indeed I would go further and suggest that almost certainly all perceptions of the future WILL change for either better or worse. Just saying!

Have you had similar thoughts? Perhaps articulated differently? Then you are equally brilliant. He is just more famous, that’s all.

Yes I agree. I use that outlook to help cope with difficult situations. When you zoom out of the difficult experience/regret and imagine it on a giant timeframe of your life, not only will its significance somewhat diminish, but it would also show all of the positive events that only could have occurred because of that catalyst. In comes the stoicism. An event is not neccesarily good or bad, it is he who interprets it as such.

Sorry, but your teachers failed you. Regrets are a form of introspective apologies and must be owned by the regretor and the apologist with deep sincerity and humility. You apologize to others to obtain forgiveness and your apology must contain a promise not to act in that fashion again. Similarly, regrets are apologies given to yourself and come with the same promise. In that respect, regrets and apologies result from self-awareness and learning experiences and without self-awareness and the ability to learn from our mistakes, we might as well be vegetables.

@@semigeniusreally8988 I think regret is not necessary to recognize a shortcoming and to apologize for it or to learn from one's mistakes. Regret is a much stronger, self-destructive psychological manifestation in my view. It is similar to the way people throw around the word "depression," which is actually a clinical condition, not merely a bout of sadness.

@@Shewib If you think that feeling regret is self-destructive, then so are apologies, which are simply regrets expressed to others rather than to oneself.. Should an operator sitting in a room in Las Vegas feel regret for discharging bombs from a drone in Afghanistan remotely that mistakenly kills 48 innocent adults and 15 innocent children at a wedding party feel regret or remorse (which are the same) for the destruction he wrought? Should a person who, while driving drunk, kills a child's pet but escapes discovery and returns home never to be prosecuted? Should a vigilante feel regret for shooting an innocent person in his attempt to gain revenge for his daughter's rape by shooting at his daughter's rapist? Or what if the alleged rapist was misidentified? The list could go on ad infinitum, but by denegrating the very concept of regret you denegrate our humanity. And by comparing it to depression, you denigrate those suffering from depression. If you have lived a life free of the feeling of regret, you are almost certainly pathologic or sociopathic and you have my pity for having to live with yourself.

All the regrets I have are of things I *didn’t* do.

Agreed?!!! Stating the bloody obvious

I really do miss his insight and brilliance with language

@@xorealslowmd and today we get kids drooling over Jordan Peterson. Oh how far we have fallen...

@@twntwrs Jordan is also good, Hitchens was great, Jordan is very good, he's necessary, he's one of the bulwalks for free speech today, thats very valuable.

@@twntwrs well compared to the likes of Richard Dawkins Peterson sure is a step forward.

@@DaniboyBR2 Yeah, he's a "bulwalk" alright. Not only talks bull but walks it too, straight to the bank...

So you know the mind of god? Or do you get off on your self righteous judgement of another's soul?

I assumed he was quite happy and content with his lot.

But if you had not said it you may have regret it

But you weren’t ever wrong about anything. We were all lied to by the people we should have been able to trust. However anyone still trusting the federal government deserves whatever comes their way.

How about the new current thing in Ukraine? How do you feel about that?

@@BassGoThump Choosing whom to believe is an important aspect of our lives. None of the people promoting the Iraq War and the war on terror had any real credibility to anyone with an objectively critical eye.

Possibly ! but like you’ve never been wrong about anything ? Your ridiculous user name for one thing

Trying and not succeeding and then looking back at whether you should have tried at all is the alternative risk. If you try and succeed there is also another risk; “the only thing worse than not getting what you want is getting it.”

Hitchens did not allow himself to be called Chris. He corrected people that his name was Christopher and his friends called him Hitch.