Christopher Hitchens once divided the world into the things he hated and the things he loved.
“In the hate column: dictatorship, religion, stupidity, demagogy, censorship, bullying and intimidation.
In the love column: literature, irony, humor, the individual and the defense of free expression.”
What stands out is the inclusion of irony, an appreciation of which is one of the most reliable indicators of intellectual flexibility – the capacity to hold multiple perspectives without surrendering to one.
People without irony tend to be humourless, of course, but it goes deeper than that. You cannot be a fanatic and possess it. The two are incompatible. Fanaticism requires absolute certainty, whereas irony sees the gap between what’s said and what’s meant, between the ideal and the actual. This is why fanatics are so literal-minded. They cannot grasp ambiguity or complexity.
We see it in the comment sections and replies. It’s all over social media, naturally.…
