I went to hear Christopher Hitchens speak at AUB tonight. Before leaving work, I called my friend S. to see if he was still planning on going. He picked up the phone and said: “Did you hear?
“What?”
“There’s a rumor that Hitchens got beaten up by SSNP thugs in Hamra a couple of nights ago.”
“Is it true?”
“Don’t know. Angry Arab had a thing about it.”
Curious to see Hitch with a black eye, I headed over to the lecture which was entitled: “Who are the Revolutionaries in the Middle East Today?” The auditorium was crowded when he showed up, sans signs of SSNP punishment. He launched his talk by explaining that his real topic would be “The Ironies of History,” and proceeded to wax philosophic about the dangers of moral equivalency, the evil of Hasan Nasrallah, the greatness of Bush, the incoherence of religion, the need for secular nationalist revolutionaries, the white man’s burden, etc. It was signature late Hitchens: an arch and pompous parody of himself.
Elbowing my way to the front of the crowd after the talk, I managed to ask him whether the rumor was true. Had he, in fact, been beaten up in Hamra by the secular nationalist revolutionaries of the SSNP? It was, Hitchens confirmed. “They broke my glases, tried to break my finger. They roughed me up.”
Ironies of history indeed.
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February 18, 2009 at 9:24 pm
too funny
. Bet this wasn’t what the LRF hoped for when it funded the trip for this merry little band of journalistos!
February 18, 2009 at 11:43 pm
[...] Qifa Nabki, Abu Muqawama and the Angriest Arab bring us the tidings — although I would note that Hitchens stories always include his insobriety, whether true or not. Anyway I am glad to see, although I cannot confirm, that the Lebanese Renaissance Foundation spending its money: Washington is indeed a pay-to-play world. [...]
February 19, 2009 at 11:58 am
[...] from his trip is that he was beaten up by SSNP thugs for scribbling on their posters, as my friend Qifa confirmed with paparazzi flair after the lecture. I don’t really have much to say about that (in [...]
February 19, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Whether you like Bush or not, he was the best president Lebanon could hope for. Had a democrat been in the white house, would the Syrians have left Lebanon in 2005? Unlikely. Bush, because of Iraq, scared the shit out of them and that is why Lebanon is half free today. Oh sorry, I forgot, the Syrians were scared of the large rally.
February 26, 2009 at 9:19 pm
[...] Qifa Nabki who attended the Hitchens lecture at the American University of Beirut that night confirmed the [...]
March 6, 2009 at 7:44 am
Hitchens is a more serious version of Alan Dershowitz. Both are grandstanders, provocateurs and clowns in their own way. Though Hitchens brain works at a bit more sophisticated level.
And ultimately each is a charlatan and morally bankrupt.