The words are all that matter...
For those of you who don’t know me, I’m quite the scribbler. I’m currently a columnist and Israel correspondent for the Algemeiner, and I’ve been writing about Israel, Judaism, Zionism, and myriad other topics for longer than I like to admit. But you might not know how I got started.
Around 15 years ago, with great trepidation, I pressed “publish” on something I had written for a strange medium called “the blog.” Pre-social media, the blog was a glorious thing — millions of people writing about whatever they wanted and some of them doing it very well. It gave all of us a proving ground, and if I hadn’t pressed publish back then, I wouldn’t be where I am now — a professional writer and editor who’s blessed with being able to make a living by words.
Today, social media has conquered the universe and the blogs are basically gone. This is a tragedy, I think. By definition, social media diminishes, whittling everything down to a few dozen characters. As a result, it’s shrill, shallow, and sometimes downright ugly. At it’s worst, there’s simply no words at all, just flitting images that tell us nothing. Nonetheless, it’s still one of the only places where almost anyone can talk without a filter, make some noise, and maybe even get people who know nothing about you to listen.
Now, however, this new medium of Substack has caught my eye, and I like that it seems to have the same freedom as social media, but also allows for the kind of long-form writing that serves all of us who don’t believe in tl/dr. I have no idea whether I’ll have a talent for it, but as I said, if I hadn’t pressed “publish” all those years ago, I wouldn’t be where I am now, so — into the abyss.
Thus, I present By Benjamin K., where I intend to write about topics like Israel, the Jewish people, Zionism, antisemitism, and all the other fun subjects I deal with elsewhere. But I also plan to take advantage of the freedom this medium presents to write about basically anything that interests me — and I hope interests you too.
Accordingly, I will write an essay of 1,000 words or more every other week on who knows what topic, which will be exclusively for paid subscribers. If you enjoyed my columns for the Algemeiner and the essays I’ve published elsewhere, and want to read my writing on life, the universe, and everything, or just enjoy the healthy masochism of reading long-form essays, then this space is for you.
I’ve studied history for a long time, both in academia and on my own, and one thing this has taught me is that nothing matters but the words. People have etched on wet clay, chiseled in stone, inked on scrolls, bound in books, posted on blogs, uploaded ebooks, tapped out 280 characters on Twitter, and now people are musing at length on Substack. I don’t lament the demise of any of those media of transmission. The words are all that matter. How you get them out there is irrelevant.
Change, as Heraclitus is supposed to have said, is the only constant. I’ve done pretty well by embracing changes in publishing technology when they come, and these days they come thick and fast. If you want in on this particular part of the ride, please subscribe. I’m looking forward to writing what I hope you’re looking forward to reading.