ryan (nine castles) said about him on facebook something like "RIP christopher hitchens, mostly right about atheism, mostly wrong about everything else." i thought it was funny.

i think an iconoclastic voice is a very important voice in social dialogue, and he brought that to the table in spades. unfortunately (and predictably) it doesn't tend to go down well in a lot of circles, but it must be said that pretty much nobody did it like hitchens. he was clever, insightful and a valuable voice across a lot of discussions, to be sure -- atheism, the war, marxism, activism -- but there are lots of polemicists on those subjects, whereas few have the guts or the skill to tear down mother theresa.