{"id":7900,"date":"2020-02-10T00:11:09","date_gmt":"2020-02-10T05:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/?p=7900"},"modified":"2020-02-10T00:11:09","modified_gmt":"2020-02-10T05:11:09","slug":"heres-how-to-become-an-informed-citizen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/heres-how-to-become-an-informed-citizen\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s How To Become an Informed Citizen"},"content":{"rendered":"

When people hear <\/span>Epictetus quoted<\/span><\/a> to justify not watching the news\u2014\u201cIf you wish to improve, be content to appear clueless or stupid in extraneous matters\u201d\u2014they get upset. It\u2019s understandable. For generations, especially in America, people have been conditioned to think that consuming journalism, be it in newspaper or television or online form, is the duty of every informed citizen.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, only the second half of this supposition is correct. Yes, it <\/span>is<\/span><\/i> the duty of every citizen\u2014especially those with voting rights\u2014to be informed. No, the news is not the way to do that. In fact, in today\u2019s world of clickbait and sensationalism it may be the worst. Just a few years ago, the head of CBS (who also happened to be a serial sexual harasser) noted glibly h<\/span>ow a certain presidential candidate was clearly bad for America but \u201cdamn good for CBS.\u201d \u201cThis is going to be a very good year for us,\u201d he said, faux apologizing. \u201cIt’s a terrible thing to say. But, bring it on… Keep going.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

If that isn\u2019t evidence for you that you should <\/span>not<\/span><\/i> keep going, and should definitely <\/span>stop<\/span><\/i> watching so much news, there\u2019s not much else to be said. But perhaps there\u2019s another way to think about it: The best way to be an informed citizen is to follow the path of the Stoics, who had no such thing as real-time journalism. You should study history. You should study the law. You should study human nature. As Machiavelli, who was forced into a retreat from public affairs, once observed, \u201c<\/span>Anyone who studies present and ancient affairs will easily see how in all cities and all peoples there still exist, and have always existed, the same desires and passions.” <\/span>Marcus Aurelius said<\/span><\/a> very much the same thing: History is the same thing happening over and over again.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you want to be an informed citizen, if you want to actually <\/span>understand\u2014<\/span><\/i>rather than know trivia about\u2014what\u2019s going on in the world, then pick up a biography. Pick up <\/span>Thucydides<\/span><\/a>. Pick up <\/span>Plutarch<\/span><\/a>. Pick up <\/span>Robert Caro<\/span><\/a> or <\/span>Edward Gibbon<\/span><\/a>. Read <\/span>Doris Kearns Goodwin<\/span><\/a>. Forget tweets about political witch hunts, read <\/span>Stacey Schiff\u2019s new book<\/span><\/a> about<\/span><\/i> actual witch hunts. Read <\/span>Machiavelli<\/span><\/a>. Read <\/span>Seneca<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>Read about Seneca and Nero and their complicated relationship<\/span><\/a>. Read psychology. Go read the actual constitution of the country you live in\u2014read <\/span>The Federalist Papers<\/span><\/a> or the <\/span>Magna Carta<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Go deep. Go backward. Go to the real truths. That\u2019s what informed people do. And they are fine being seen as ignorant about every other silly thing.<\/span><\/p>\n

P.S.\u00a0<\/i><\/b>This was originally sent<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a> on February 11, 2020. Sign up today for <\/i><\/b>the Daily Stoic\u2019s email<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0and get our popular\u00a0<\/i><\/b>free 7-day course on Stoicism.\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When people hear Epictetus quoted to justify not watching the news\u2014\u201cIf you wish to improve, be content to appear clueless or stupid in extraneous matters\u201d\u2014they get upset. It\u2019s understandable. For generations, especially in America, people have been conditioned to think that consuming journalism, be it in newspaper or television or online form, is the duty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nHere\u2019s How To Become an Informed Citizen<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/heres-how-to-become-an-informed-citizen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Here\u2019s How To Become an Informed Citizen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When people hear Epictetus quoted to justify not watching the news\u2014\u201cIf you wish to improve, be content to appear clueless or stupid in extraneous matters\u201d\u2014they get upset. 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