Chapter 2 talked about the effect that different cultures, religions, and movements have on people's perceptions of other people. The quote that stood out to me about this was on page 13-14, "I am always and at once on the defensive, for example, when people speak of races and nations as if they were personalities and had souls and destinies and suchlike". Christopher Hitchens seems to be describing the tendency of the general public to label an entire culture of people as one thing. This relates to the idea of stereotypes, and how often people use them. I think Hitchens is justified in being skeptical of those that give an entire nation one personality or one soul. Someone who would do that must have a very skewed view of humanity to think that everyone of a certain race has the same soul and the same destiny. Every human has his own ideas, goals, and personality traits regardless of where they are from or what color their skin is. While culture and geographical location does help shape a person, the real essence of their being comes from within.
A quote I found in chapter 3 seemed to sum up what Hitchens has been preaching throughout his book so far. On page 20, he says " There must be confrontation and opposition, in order that sparks may be kindled". Earlier on this same page, it describes that most humans don't want to live in a fantasy world where everything is perfect and there are no problems. Obviously this is impossible, as Hitchens describes, but this is not a life that most people want to live. As much as the idea of no war and no disease and no poverty sounds amazing, the truth is that without the dark, there can be no light. It relates to the idea of yin-and-yang. People need to suffer so that they may overcome that suffering and grow stronger. You can never truly appreciate the good things in life until you have experienced bad. If everything in the world was perfect, then perfect would simply become normal, and there would be nothing extraordinary.
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