My Own Private Planet

I sure hope I’m right because I may never change my mind again.

When I first started getting news from the Internet I became my own editor in chief. I sampled broadly from the endless salad bar of net news sites. Over time however I became frustrated with mainstream news sites because of what I considered their “bias” and “cowardice” and boringness. I started deleting news sites that annoyed me.

Now I make links not just to favorite news pages but to the sections of those sites I am most interested in. For me each day’s top news stories always involve the Chicago Cubs, the world year of physics and the weekly Torah portion… not necessarily in that order.

It makes my mornings sing. I click directly to the daily box scores and bible commentaries without a bunch of inane headlines screeching propaganda at me. I begin my days immersed in delights. Between Moses’ arguments with G-s, the MINOS neutrino experiment at Fermilab and the glass-like arm of Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood I spend the first twenty minutes of my news-consuming day in bliss.

As for the international stuff that just depresses the daylights out of me like Iraq and Afghanistan, and torture; for me it’s like Hemmingway says, “In the fall the war was always there but I did not go to it anymore.”

When it comes to US politics between Air America radio, Mother Jones magazine and the nation.com if evidence emerges that the Bush administration are not villains, I will likely never hear about it.

I’m not crazy or sticking my head in the sand. I know not everyone agrees with my particular views but I just don’t want the aggravation of reading about theirs.

Google News which promises to scan 4500 news sources around the world and present to me only the stories in which I am already interested and upon which the planet and I already agree.

MSNBC’s Newsbot keeps track of the stories I click on then suggests other stories of the same sort I might like. Thus global news conforms itself to my tastes adapting over time to my interests. I like that.

Of course no system is perfect and the odd pro-war commentary or Michael Jackson quote slips through my filter. But a mere mouse click and I am happily listening to upbeat quotations from Rabbi Nachman of Breslov. My world remaining solid and predictable as Newton’s laws.

And that’s OK because my views are already well-reasoned, compassionate and rooted in oldest traditions of moral philosophy, what I happen to feel at the moment.

Having my own views and opinions ceaselessly reinforced makes me a much happier person. I am more satisfied with the state of the world as I see how much of it agrees that I was right all along. A more satisfied Aaron has more joy to spread round among family and friends.

Of course I remember the old days when everybody got the same news and responded to it in their own way. And I certainly understand that no one ever died from listening to an opinion with which they did not agree. But I figure, “Why risk it?” Besides, I am sure that if something really, really important happened some news of it would eventually show up on some kind of way on Chicago Cubs dot com.