Mr. Hitchens Goes to Madison

Christopher Hitchens is coming to Madison on October 13 to address the Freedom from Religion Foundation. This is great news for a city that has ignored Hitchens for some time, and it will be interesting to see how people react to a leftist speaker who takes a hard-line stance on terrorism and jihad. As it usually is with Hitchens, the Wisconsin State Journal gives a rather mindless summation of his positions:

Hard to peg politically, Hitchens has been an enthusiastic supporter of the Iraq war, yet delighted in the death of the Rev. Jerry Falwell, calling him an "ugly little charlatan" in a CNN interview.

And here we have a perfect opportunity to kick off one of this blog's central themes: Political philosophies which don't mirror the tepid anti-war Madison Left -- especially liberal ones -- really confuse and bother Madison liberals. Hitchens is not "hard to peg politically" at all for anybody who is paying attention. He's a 1930's-style liberal with leftist economic and social views who sees the war on terror -- and in his estimation (not mine), the war in Iraq -- as necessary conflicts for preserving Western liberal secular values. That's a perfectly coherent, exciting politics which should be appreciated and recognized no matter one's own slant.

This blog is intended to be about Madison politics, and so it shall be. But the Hitchens snippet is a great way to set the general tone of what I hope will be a long and productive exercise in critical thinking. UW-Madison is an essential university -- a public college of great academic productivity, large and broad enough to be all things for all people. At our best moments we make the case for public colleges. But at our worst we lack a strong appreciation for academic freedom, ideological openness, and political diversity. We should be about all three of those things, without apology, and we haven't completely embraced them yet. Hitchens should come to Madison precisely because he defies our preconceived notions of what politics should sound like, and how liberals should behave. His speech (if the public is able to see it -- not just FFRF members) could help move us beyond the bubble we love to frolic in. He could help us grow up.