Friday, May 24, 2013

The pornography of power

By accident I stumbled across a video of Christopher Hitchens giving a talk about his book Why Orwell Matters (link in the sidebar; highly recommended).  I was struck listening to the part that starts a little after 14 minutes in where Hitchens describes the "pornography of power" - people who exercise power not because of an excuse (for your own good, for society's good, etc), just just because they like it:
We're in power because we like it.  We're in power because we enjoy punishing people.  We're in power because we enjoy owning people.  We enjoy telling them what they can do.   

Somehow it made me think on the current scandals - IRS, investigating journalists, Fast & Furious - and wonder what Hitch would have to say.



Actually, I don't much wonder.

This performance is a delight to watch - Hitchens talks for 90 minutes with no notes.  His death was a huge loss.

2 comments:

  1. Old NFOMay 24, 2013 at 7:17 PM

    That it was, and I'll watch the whole thing later tonight. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. BobMay 25, 2013 at 9:34 AM

    He'd be screaming about the Obama administration hounding journalists, I'd think. I'm glad I got to exchange emails with him a few times before he left us.

    ReplyDelete

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