“Should I Follow the News?” Part 1: Thoreau

I tried writing this last summer and again in the months following October 7th. Now that the next election cycle is fast approaching, I felt compelled to try again. At least I finished Part 1!

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While working on this article earlier this year, I was thinking about what to use for the artwork. I checked the mail and found this: the latest issue of The Atlantic (April 2024) - the same publication in which Thoreau’s essay appeared 161 years ago. I thought to myself, “This seems appropriate.”

“Should I Follow the News?” Part 1: Thoreau

Preface: How Following the News Saved the Jews

Let’s start with a trivia question: Which famous biblical figure teaches us the importance of following the news? According to Ralbag, the answer is: Mordechai.

The third chapter of the Book of Esther chronicles the ascent of Haman and concludes with the dispatch of his genocidal decree: “The runners left, pressed by the king's word, and the law was given in Shushan the castle. The king and Haman sat to drink, but the city of Shushan was in turmoil” (Esther 3:15). In the very next verse, we are informed: “Mordechai knew all that had been done, and Mordechai tore his garments and dressed in sackcloth and ashes. He went out into the middle of the city and cried a loud and bitter cry.” (ibid. 4:1). Ralbag (toeles #27) spells out the lesson we learn from Mordechai’s conduct:

[This teaches us] that it is proper for a person to investigate current events (ענינים המתחדשים, lit. “newly arising matters”) as much as possible so that he may take counsel according to his ability regarding what he sees newly arising against him. You see that Mordechai, because of his habit of inquiring about the news in the king’s palace, immediately knew all that was happening around him (i.e. Haman’s plan). This enabled him to diligently take proper counsel regarding the evil Haman planned against Israel.

Were it not for Mordechai’s practice of following the news in Shushan, he and Esther might not have found out about Haman’s plan until it was too late. Had that happened, our people would have been doomed.

But what would Mordechai or Ralbag say about following the news today? It is one thing for a court official in the Persian Empire of the 6th century B.C.E. to “investigate current events as much as possible,” but the world of 2024 is fundamentally different. In the information age with 24/7 media coverage, the measure of “as much as possible” is unlimited. Likewise, the imperative to “investigate” is infinite in its scope, given the volume of news and analysis available to the public. And whereas “current events” in Mordechai’s time meant “local current events,” the exponential increase in global interconnectivity has expanded this to include other countries — and potentially, the entire world.

This concludes the Torah-related preface of this article (which I included because I began writing this two weeks before Purim). The real impetus for this article was an essay I read a few years ago by Henry David Thoreau called Life Without Principle, originally published in The Atlantic in October 1863. Before we examine his words, I need to explain how this series came to be.

How this Series Came to Be

I’ve had a tumultuous relationship with following the news for most of my adult life. I think it would be beneficial to summarize that relationship so you can see where I’m coming from, which is relevant to where I’m going:

• Growing Up (1984-2002): Like most kids, I didn’t really follow the news. My dad was into having strong political opinions at the time, so I was marginally aware of certain things going on, but for the most part, I was uninterested.

• Yeshiva Years (2002-2009): Google News launched in 2002. At some point during my seven years of full-time learning in yeshiva, I started checking Google News throughout the day. Before social media, Google News was my default site. Most of what I read were the headlines, but I occasionally clicked on articles.

• Pre-English Teacher Era (2009-2017): This trend continued into the first phase of my teaching career, but two important elements were added at some point: Facebook and Twitter. I don’t even remember when either of these social media platforms became my primary source of news. At some point, I suddenly realized that I was no longer checking Google News, but was getting everything from Facebook and Twitter instead. And since I spent much of my time on those two sites, I gradually became immersed in the news as driven by the algorithm.

• English Teacher Into the Pandemic (2017-2022): In the 2017-2018 school year, I subscribed to The Week Magazine and became an AP English Language and Composition teacher. The Week provided me with a weekly overview of current events from a left-of-center-but-aiming-to-cover-both-sides perspective. As an AP English teacher, I was expected to encourage students to keep tabs on current events, and I did the same. When COVID-19 hit, I fell into the same patterns of obsessively following the news and doom-scrolling that much of the world did. Not only was I locked into Twitter like never before, but I also signed up to have news delivered to my email inbox.

• News Abstention Experiment (2023 until October): At the beginning of 2023, I decided that I’d had enough. I made the decision to cut the news out of my life to see what would happen. I canceled my subscriptions to The Week and other media, I deleted Twitter, and aside from the unavoidable articles and headlines I encountered on Facebook, I remained blissfully ignorant of the goings on in the world.

• Israel Hamas War (October 2023 into 2024): Everything changed on October 7th. I, like many of my fellow Jews, reverted to pandemic levels of news-following and doom-scrolling. I subscribed to two news services which delivered news each morning to my inbox. I listened to daily and podcasts on the current state of affairs in Israel. I rejoined Twitter. I spent too much time reading the news on Facebook.

This brings us to the present. We are 271 days into the war and nearly as many days into the waves of renewed antisemitism in America and worldwide. I’ve found myself torn between the two extremes, oscillating between news fixation and news avoidance. I suspect I’m not the only one. The chief impetus for writing this series is my desire to stop the swing of this pendulum by asking myself what I actually think about this question.

What This Series Is (and Is Not)

I have a few points to make before we begin. First, the title of this series is NOT “Should You Follow the News?’” but rather “Should I Follow the News?’” Although my argument will involve universal principles, I acknowledge that this is an individualized question. My intent here is simply to share the various angles from which I have considered this question and think aloud about my own stance. What you conclude for yourself is neither my business nor my concern.

Second, I’ve chosen to formulate the titular question in binary terms as if I seek a “yes” or “no” answer. That’s not really the case. A more accurate title would be: “To What Extent Should I Follow the News?” Better yet: “What Principles Ought to Govern My Involvement in Following the News.” I only went with the binary title because it sounded better.

Third, the reason why I tried and failed to write this article so many times is because I attempted to cram ALL my thoughts into a single piece, ALL based on this excerpt from Thoreau. Only this afternoon did I realize I could solve this problem by making this into an article series of indeterminate length with Thoreau as Part 1.

Last, although Thoreau’s essay is worth reading in its entirety, I will confine myself to citing a single, lengthy excerpt, which I’ll break up into paragraphs interspersed with my commentary. All the emphasis in bold is mine, and all the italicized bracketed comments are intended as supplemental information provided by Jeffry S. Cramer, the editor of my annotated edition of Thoreau’s essays.

As I mentioned when I launched the paid subscription tier of my substack, I’ve decided to keep my non-Torah articles behind a paywall. (Not only that, but since I know people are going to get riled up by what I write here, I prefer to limit the audience to those who are literally invested in my content and will give it the thought it deserves.) If, for whatever reason, you’re not a paid subscriber but you’re still interested in what Thoreau has to say, I encourage you to read his essay yourself. My commentary will cover the portion beginning with “That excitement” and ending with “prick the fingers,” as well as the final paragraph of the essay.

Without further ado, here’s what Thoreau has to say about whether I should follow the news!