I'm grateful to you for this rejoinder to Hanania, whom I also respect a lot. Thoreau correctly described the "news" as "the froth and scum of the eternal sea," and I find it disheartening how many believe the absurd lie that "being informed" is somehow a "civic duty," despite almost everyone being able to admit that if they'd missed *ev…
I'm grateful to you for this rejoinder to Hanania, whom I also respect a lot. Thoreau correctly described the "news" as "the froth and scum of the eternal sea," and I find it disheartening how many believe the absurd lie that "being informed" is somehow a "civic duty," despite almost everyone being able to admit that if they'd missed *every single news story they'd ever read in their lives*, nothing about the world at large would be different.
Silence is preferable; attending in whatever ways to the themes of "the eternal sea" is preferable; sleep is probably preferable. And even true junkies have to admit that almost all the news they consume is not new; it is, rather, "yet another example of" a trend or phenomenon they already have a complete and settled position on. It is extremely rare for people to change their values or priors in response to news articles, yet everyone pretends like the next dispatch will be decisive. It won't, and you're right: it's all much, much worse than silence (which is, incidentally, what preceded it for most of human history).
I'm grateful to you for this rejoinder to Hanania, whom I also respect a lot. Thoreau correctly described the "news" as "the froth and scum of the eternal sea," and I find it disheartening how many believe the absurd lie that "being informed" is somehow a "civic duty," despite almost everyone being able to admit that if they'd missed *every single news story they'd ever read in their lives*, nothing about the world at large would be different.
Silence is preferable; attending in whatever ways to the themes of "the eternal sea" is preferable; sleep is probably preferable. And even true junkies have to admit that almost all the news they consume is not new; it is, rather, "yet another example of" a trend or phenomenon they already have a complete and settled position on. It is extremely rare for people to change their values or priors in response to news articles, yet everyone pretends like the next dispatch will be decisive. It won't, and you're right: it's all much, much worse than silence (which is, incidentally, what preceded it for most of human history).