Cicero In Contrarian Pants

Have a look at this Slate article by Christopher Hitchens following the death of Augusto Pinochet. Needless to say, Hitch is no fan of the old tyrant. Here's the interesting point though. Hitch is a leftist who has been vilified by the left for supporting the war in Iraq because he saw Saddam as a a dangerous fascist tyrant who could use a good deposing.

Hitch is my hero. Not based on what his opinion actually is from subject to subject. Cicero has never worn socialist pants, I can tell you. Its because Hitch is a contrarian whose opinion process is based on starting from a set of values and following the implications of those values through to logical policy conclusions. His Gods are his principles and the truth (and whiskey but that's another story).

Believe it or not, its a rare gift that many people don't tend to follow as well as they might. We, as human beings, have an instinctive need to belong. We want to be on a team. Once on the team our principles become...well, lets just say, malleable.

This is the reason why you have the odd undercurrent of left and right extremists defending their own dictators. You don't need to talk for long before you hear someone say that Pinochet saved Chile. The person who said that has an ideological opposite who would spit on Pinochet's face and then return to his rant about how Castro saved Cuba and Stalin was just doing his best. Each side figures that the end justifies the means.

Hitch isn't having it. A pox on all your tyrants says he.

There's a lesson in that.