The Age of Reaction and the Erosion of Responsibility

by Ram ben Ze’ev

The Age of Reaction and the Erosion of Responsibility

We live in an age in which reaction has replaced reflection, and commentary has displaced understanding. A person no longer needs training, experience, or accountability to present themselves as a “journalist” or “commentator.” A camera, a microphone, and a YouTube account are now sufficient credentials. From this has emerged a dominant genre of modern media: the so-called “reaction video.”

The format is familiar and deliberately simplistic. “What is your reaction to…?” The subject might be a political event, a private individual’s mistake, a fleeting clip taken out of context, or an unfolding tragedy. The interviewer is rarely involved. The interviewee is often no more informed than the viewer. And the audience, overwhelmingly, has no stake whatsoever in the matter being discussed. They are not participants. They are spectators. The purpose is not insight but stimulation.

These productions are not neutral entertainment. They thrive on negativity. Their value lies in their ability to provoke outrage, embarrassment, ridicule, or moral posturing. Under the pretence of “news reporting” or “holding people to account,” they seek to expose, humiliate, and degrade. What is presented as information is, in reality, emotional exploitation.

From a Torah perspective, this is not a trivial cultural shift. It is a profound moral failure. The Torah does not treat speech as casual or consequence-free. Speech is a creative force. The world itself is brought into being through utterance, and human speech, formed בצלם אלקים (betzelem Elokim — in the image of G-D), carries responsibility. Words shape reality. They build or they destroy. The idea that one may endlessly comment, mock, or judge without consequence is entirely foreign to Torah thought.

Most viewers of reaction content are not involved in the events they consume. They are not witnesses. They are not responsible parties. Yet they emotionally insert themselves into situations that do not belong to them. This is not engagement; it is intrusion. The Torah repeatedly warns against involving oneself in matters that are not one’s own, particularly when the entry point is judgement or derision.

What makes this phenomenon especially corrosive is its moral disguise. Reaction culture wraps itself in the language of righteousness: “exposing hypocrisy,” “telling uncomfortable truths,” or “asking the hard questions.” In practice, it trades in ביזוי (bizui — degradation). Context is stripped away. Nuance is discarded. A moment is isolated, amplified, and presented in its most uncharitable form. The audience is invited not to understand, but to condemn.

The damage is not limited to those who are targeted. The Torah is deeply concerned with the inner life of the listener. A person who repeatedly consumes negativity reshapes their own נפש (nefesh — soul). Even when one believes they are merely watching, patterns are being absorbed: cynicism, suspicion, emotional agitation, and a taste for humiliation. Our Sages, חזל (Chazal — the Sages of blessed memory), understood that what a person sees and hears regularly becomes part of their inner structure. A culture that feeds on degradation inevitably produces degraded thinking.

Reaction culture also creates a dangerous illusion of involvement. It offers people the feeling of participation in events without responsibility or action. One feels informed, engaged, even morally superior, without having helped anyone, repaired anything, or improved the world in the slightest. The Torah rejects this posture outright. Knowledge that does not lead to תיקון (tikkun — repair) is not wisdom. It is accumulation without purpose.

There is wisdom in restraint. There is strength in silence. The Torah does not ask, “What is your reaction?” It asks, “What is required of you?” Very often, the answer is nothing more than guarding one’s speech, protecting one’s inner world, and refusing to become a consumer of humiliation masquerading as information.

Not every event demands commentary. Not every provocation deserves amplification. Not every opinion needs a platform. The modern obsession with reaction has confused noise with truth and cruelty with courage.

The real tragedy of reaction culture is not merely that it harms those it targets. It is that it trains an entire audience to find meaning in negativity, to normalise ridicule, and to mistake emotional stimulation for moral engagement. Against this, the Torah offers a radically different vision: speech that builds rather than degrades, attention directed toward genuine responsibility, and a disciplined refusal to participate in the public dismantling of human dignity.

In an age intoxicated by reaction, the Torah calls us back to responsibility. In a culture that profits from degradation, it insists on restraint. And in a world that mistakes constant commentary for wisdom, it reminds us of a simple but demanding truth: not everything that can be said should be heard, and not everything that is heard deserves a response.

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Bill White (Ram ben Ze'ev) is CEO of WireNews Limited, Mayside Partners Limited, MEADHANAN Agency, Kestrel Assets Limited, SpudsToGo Limited and Executive Director of Hebrew Synagogue