Uncomfortably Honest

We learn, sadly, that Christopher Hitchens, that, what, "complicated" man of the Left, is suffering with throat cancer. As I understand it, this is very serious. We wish him the best.

However, and in spite of it all, he has managed somehow still to produce a memoir, the recently published Hitch-22. A very good review of it, and assessment of Hitchens as well, is available at National Review Online by David Horowitz. It's a bit long, but well worth it. As far as I'm concerned, Horowitz's best line summarizing the man is found where he writes of "the oddities of Hitchens’s compartmentalized life." Perfect. Only a man capable of extreme compartmentalization could embrace the many apparent contradictions that describe Christopher Hitchens. While the review is quite critical, Horowitz calls him a friend nevertheless. Evidently, he penned the piece before learning of Hitchens' cancer.

But, actually, this post is not about Hitchens, it's about Horowitz. If you don't know who he is, I think you need to familiarize yourself with him.

David Horowitz is a self-described "red-diaper baby". He had a long and prolific association with the radical Left during the 1960s, but then in the 1970s, along with his colleague Peter Collier, began to have "second thoughts". He left the Left for good in the early to mid-80s, voting for Reagan in 1984, and began to cross swords with his former friends with much the same intensity that he used to reserve for his antagonists on the Right. You'll find him, among many other places, at Frontpagemag.com fighting the good fight. Check it out.

I don't think it's exactly correct to call him a neo-con, nor adequate to say that he simply grew up, or enjoyed some epiphany, as so many others who have made the journey from Left to Right have done. With Horowitz there is genuine pathos. He is not merely embarrassed by, ashamed of, and repentant for his former life. I think what distinguishes Horowitz is that his past haunts him...still. As he sees it, his hands are not only dirty, they are in fact stained with actual blood as he was once an eager participant with undeniable evil. I read his autobiography, Radical Son, some years ago and it is suffused with an uncomfortable honesty. You squirm as you read it, for him and for yourself.

But for that reason, David Horowitz is one of our nation's most reliable witnesses. He knows of what he speaks. You should know him too.