Letters to a Young Contrarian: Chapters 2 and 3

While further reading Letters to a Young Contrarian, I am further understanding Hitchens' words and his meaning for writing the book.  He continues still with the theme of dissenting and of thinking outside of the box.  I definitely enjoyed these two chapters more than the first, and I hope that my enjoyment will continue with each chapter.  The main highlight that stuck out to me from chapter 2 was this statement: "You must feel not that you want to but that you have to."  Hitchens' uses this to emphasize how important writing is to being a dissenter.  He even follows up with, "It's worth emphasizing, too, because there is a relationship; inexact to be sure but a relationship, between this desire or need and the ambition to rely upon internal exile,or dissent; the decision to live at a slight acute angle to society."  I truly admired this idea that writing down one's thoughts every day aids one in becoming a rebellious or radical thinker.  As someone who loves to write, I have to agree.  Writing is something that allows me to turn the thoughts in my head into physical objects that I can always return to.  It allows me to vent my feelings and clear my mind, thus to make room for greater, deeper, and different thoughts.  Moving on to chapter 3, another singular statement stood out to me as I read.  Hitchens' writes, "However, this can't alter the fact that in life we make progress by conflict…"  This is an age old concept that has been said in dozens of ways, but it's message has always been true.  "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger;" our hardships and struggles are what teach us the lessons that allow us to better ourselves.  This contributes to the idea of radical thinking, because a majority of these thinkers have faced difficulties in their lives that gave them a different or creative outlook on life.  I feel that sometimes struggle is a good thing because of the positivity that can come of it.  Overall, these two chapters dealt with concepts that are very inspiring, and I enjoyed reading them.