Welcome to my inaugural podcast episode!
I’m speaking here with journalist Matt Johnson about his latest book, How Hitchens Can Save the Left: Rediscovering Fearless Liberalism in an Age of Counter-Enlightenment. The subject couldn’t be closer to my heart because: a) I’m an enduring fan of Christopher Hitchens, a lacerating and erudite polemicist whose death in 2011 left a Hitch-sized hole in the universe, and b) “rediscovering fearless liberalism in an age of counter-enlightenment” is a project in which I’m a wee bit invested.
In the years before his passing, Hitchens had become a reviled figure on the mainstream left — a status he wore with his typical swagger. A Marxist in his youth, his staunch support for the Iraq war saw him cast out of his political tribe as a traitor. The UK Labour MP George Galloway described Hitchens’ career as “something unique in natural history .. The first ever metamorphosis from a butterfly back into a slug.”
But as Matt tells me, Hitchens’ shift from dogma had started long before the Iraq war, gathering pace in the aftermath of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie and the collapse of the Soviet Union. And the “fearless liberalism” at which he arrived — a creed that values freedom, solidarity and universal human rights — has its lineage in leftist heroes such as George Orwell.
So is “the Hitch” the cure for the left — and what form does the left’s sickness take? If he were alive today would he be cancelled? Would he be on Substack like the rest of us heretics?
Listen and find out! One thing: our chat comes to a slightly abrupt close due to a tech boo-boo at my end. It’s unlikely to happen again. But it does give me an excuse for another chat with Matt at a future date. He’s a rigorous thinker with a finely-tuned moral compass.
The ghost of Christopher Hitchens