Hitchens and Kim Jong-il prove: "Screw 'em If They Can't Take a Joke!"

"And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted."
- Matthew 23:12

"Be a clown, be a clown,
All the world loves a clown
Be a poor silly ass
And you'll always travel first-class"
- From "Be A Clown", lyrics by Cole Porter

The year 2011 ended with two notable celebrity deaths:

1. British-American journalist and gadfly Christopher Hitchens died of pneumonia on December 15; and
2. Kim Jong-il, the man who held the title of North Korean Supreme Leader (along with many other titles) died of a heart attack on December 17.

To put the lives of these men in perspective, I correct a theory of Hitchens, and apply this corrected theory to the late "Beloved Leader" of North Korea. Hitchens placed the blame for much of the world's evils on religion, but a closer examination reveals that the blame more accurately belongs to the ancient vice of vanity.

For centuries, religious leaders have attacked atheism as promoting unethical behavior. These leaders argued that without the reward of Heaven or the threat of Hell, what incentive is there for an atheist to behave morally? Hitchens, along with many atheists authors, have correctly pointed out that this argument is erroneous and unfair. There are many good reasons for practicing morality besides the afterlife, and there are many atheists who lead ethical lives. Hitchens is right on this point, but then he advanced his own variant on this attack. As he said in a debate with Mark Roberts:

"There’s a great deal of wickedness that’s attributable purely to religious belief. Morally normal people wouldn’t do these things if they didn’t think God was desiring them to do so."

So instead of arguing that ethics require a belief in God, Hitchens argues that one should not believe in order to live an ethical life. Hitchens' position has many of the same mistakes as the anti-atheist position he attacked. There are plenty of rationalizations for bad behavior besides the "God made me do it" excuse. Moreover, some of the greatest moral outrages of the twentieth century (the Soviet Gulags, the Cultural Revolution, the East German Stasi) were carried out by Marxists who opposed religion.

Hitchens frequently encountered the issue of Marxist immorality in debates, and he had a novel response to this issue. He argued that the Soviet, Maoist, and North Korean regimes, in spite of their official atheist positions, were really religions! Christopher posits that the founding members of these failed states are viewed as gods or prophets, and hence these Marxist atrocities are yet more examples of holy terror. Now granted, some communist states have rituals that are reminiscent of cult religions, such as the Soviet's extraordinary efforts to preserve Lenin's body. But the square peg of communism simply does not fit into the round hole of religion, at least as how Hitchens and Marx defined it. Consider Engals' eulogy for Marx, taught in all the major communist countries: "On the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think." Such a statement makes it clear that Engals did not believe that Marx had an afterlife. Now if the communists are going to accept anyone as god, they would certainly regard Karl Marx as divine. And if they were to do so, they must conclude that their god is dead!

Christopher Hitchens is not here to defend his theory that religion is the root of most of the world's atrocities, but we can do the next best thing by fixing this theory's flaws. The real common factor to the most repressive states is a belief that their leadership is incapable of error, and therefore should be exempt for criticism. Now if your state's leadership is claiming to be God's exclusive agent on planet Earth, fostering this belief is that much easier. But as the cults of Fidel Castro and Kim Jung-il demonstrate, one can obtain such blind devotion without religion.

What these repressive regimes really lack is humility, that is, a good-natured admission that they have faults, just like the rest of us. In other words, they lack a sense of humor. Consider Kim Jung-il. He has read many a somber, scholarly criticisms of his rule. As an avid film buff, he has seen dramas and action pictures with North Korean villains. But there is only one Western work that so offended Kim Jung-il that he had North Korean embassies request that the work be banned: the film "Team America: World Police", the marionette picture made by the creators of "South Park". He realized that other critiques would do him no lasting harm, but that anyone who laughs at the Kim Jung-il puppet is unlikely to accept the real Kim as an infallible ruler. For similar reasons, Adolph Hitler was distressed by the Chaplin film "The Great Dictator". One wonders what Hitler would have thought of the many YouTube "Downfall" videos.

For this reason, we should be grateful for the current trend where our politicians appear on comedy shows, such as Jay Leno. There are now several shows ("The Daily Show", "Red Eye") that combine politics and humor. Political humor does more than provide us with some much needed laughs; it helps us keep our leaders in perspective, and by doing so, it protects our freedom.