1
Reject ethnic and racial prejudice.
Hitchens begins with equal human dignity rather than religious identity or ritual observance.
Christopher Hitchens's Ten Commandments
Christopher Hitchens proposed a sharply modern alternative to the traditional Ten Commandments, shifting the emphasis away from ritual obedience and toward human dignity, liberty, anti-cruelty, and moral responsibility.
Christopher Hitchens's Modern Alternative
The ten themes below are concise editorial paraphrases, not a reproduction of Hitchens's original wording. Together they recast the moral conversation in secular, human-centred terms rather than divine command.
2
Never treat another person as property.
His second concern is an absolute rejection of slavery, ownership, and human exploitation.
3
Condemn sexual violence and coercion.
Consent and freedom from intimidation become explicit moral duties rather than implied ones.
4
Protect children from harm.
The safety of children is stated directly as a fundamental test of adult conduct.
5
Do not condemn people for innate characteristics.
People should not be punished or shamed for aspects of themselves they did not choose.
6
Recognise human dependence on nature.
Human beings are animals within an ecological web and should act with that dependence in mind.
7
Treat sophisticated fraud as theft.
Respectability, paperwork, or financial complexity does not make dishonest enrichment morally different from robbery.
8
Use technology with consideration for others.
His deliberately comic line about mobile phones makes ordinary public courtesy part of modern ethics.
9
Reject violence justified by religious zeal.
Crusades, jihadism, and related forms of absolutism are judged by the harm they cause rather than the faith they invoke.
10
Put humane principles above doctrine.
No god, faith, or commandment should be exempt from moral scrutiny when it conflicts with human dignity.
Read the primary sources: Christopher Hitchens, “The New Commandments”, Vanity Fair (April 2010), and Vanity Fair’s official video, “Thou Shalt Watch This Video”.
Further Discussion
Hitchens's list is vivid and memorable, and its real force lies in what it exposes: how limited the traditional commandments can seem when judged as a complete moral guide for modern life.
Its strongest lines are clear moral claims about cruelty, slavery, dignity, honesty, and violence. In that sense, the list works less as a casual parody than as a deliberate challenge to the old framework: if a timeless set of commandments leaves so much unsaid about equality, abuse, freedom, and responsibility, then perhaps it is not sufficient on its own.
Some entries are still highly topical, deliberately provocative, or shaped by the controversies of their moment. But that too reveals the difficulty of writing a new moral canon: a modern set must be vivid enough to confront real abuses, broad enough to endure, and clear enough to guide conduct across more than one generation.