My own opinion is enough for me. And I claim the right to defend it against any consensus, any majority anywhere, any place, any time. And anyone who disagrees with this can pick a number, get in line and kiss my ass.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of individual opinion and the right to stand by it regardless of popular opinion.
Christopher Hitchens asserts the value of personal conviction and the necessity of defending one's beliefs against the overwhelming force of majority opinion. His bold statement underscores the idea that true individuality requires one to resist conformity and stand firm in the face of dissent, highlighting the power of personal perspectives in a world often dominated by collective thinking.
In practice
In a debate about controversial topics, one might use this quote to assert the importance of personal beliefs.
In a public dialogue with Salman in London he [Edward Said] had once described the Palestinian plight as one where his people, expelled and dispossessed by Jewish victors, were in the unique historical position of being 'the victims of the victims': there was something quasi-Christian, I thought, in the apparent humility of that statement.
What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
Never ask while you are doing it if what you are doing is fun. Don't introduce even your most reliably witty acquaintance as someone who will set the table on a roar.
[E]xceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.
The worst days are when you feel foggy in the head - chemo-brain they call it. It's awful because you feel boring. As well as bored. And stupid. And resigned.
Let me tell you something: for hundreds of thousands of years, this kind of discussion would have been impossible to have, or those like us would have been having it at the risk of our lives. Religion now comes to us in this smiley-face, ingratiating way — because it’s had to give so much more ground and because we know so much more. But you’ve got no right to forget the way it behaved when it was strong, and when it really did believe that it had God on its side.
Utopia is in the moment. Not in some future time, some other place, but in the here and now, or else it is nowhere.
It can be lost, and it will be, if the time ever comes when these documents are regarded not as the supreme expression of our profound belief, but merely as curiosities in glass cases.
Having raised humanity above the beastly level of survival struggles, we will now aim to upgrade humans into gods and turn Homo sapiens into Homo deus.
A man is not aware of his virtues (if any). Nevertheless, one hopes that they exist.
The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.
I'm just not convinced that Jesus is going to say, "When I was hungry, you gave a check to the United Way and they fed me.
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