On the importance of argument, division,
and genuinely listening to the other point of view...
A small dose of encouragement for your personal beliefs is occasionally vital.
There are times when you feel no other option but to revisit works which have comforted you, or simply provided hope for the future.
One such book for me is Letters to a Young Contrarian by Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens was courageous, more thorough in his research than most, and best of all, exciting.
Today I read the first four chapters of his book again, and Chapter IV stood out for obvious reasons. It encapsulated the need for intelligent debate. It also offers guidance for those who are too ready to label anybody of the opposing view as a communist or fascist - as is frequently the case in today’s society.
The chapter features a number of sentences which I am incapable of writing myself, but feel should be read by all. Here they are:
Summarising a thought of Karl Popper:
‘It is very seldom…that in debate any one of two evenly matched antagonists will succeed in actually convincing or “converting” the other. But it is equally seldom that in a properly conducted argument either antagonist will end up holding exactly the same position as that with which they began.’
Quoting the words on Sigmund Freud’s memorial in Vienna:
‘The voice of reason is small, but very persistent.’
Summarising the view of Frederick Douglass:
‘Those who expected truth or justice without a struggle were like those who could imagine the sea without an image of the tempest.’
Hitchens:
‘Perfectionists and zealots can break but not bend.’
Hitchens:
‘If you have ever argued with a religious devotee, for example, you will have noticed that his self-esteem and pride are involved in the dispute and that you are asking him to give up something more than a point in argument.’
Bibliography:
Christopher Hitchens, Letters to a Young Contrarian, (Basic Books, 2001)