It is good for the soul to be reminded what a sharp and funny writer Christopher Hitchens was in the days before he collapsed under the weight of his own pomposity. Over the weekend, to take my mind off the excitement in Westminster, I picked up his 1988 collection, Prepared for the Worst: Selected Essays and Minority Reports, which contains among many other good things his reflections on the ‘pseudoscientific propaganda word’ terrorism. The essay is called ‘Wanton Acts of Usage’ and appeared in Harper’s in September 1986. You can find it here (subscription required).
The piece makes hilarious reading today in the light of Hitchens’s enthusiasm for the war on terror (and scorn for those who oppose it).
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