I watch The Daily Show. With the exception of his fairly idiotic views on Judaism I generally enjoy Jon Stewart and his point of view. I appreciate his ability to call out hypocrisy and his relentless disdain for the small mindedness that characterizes much of the conversation in the public square today and in the media in particular. I’ll be a bit sad to see him leave his post at the Daily Show but more generally applaud his willingness to move on.
It can be very hard, sometimes seemingly impossible, to make a change when everything is going well, when we’re comfortable, when were secure. It’s human nature to want to stay put, to always be thinking about the bird in hand and so on. I’m grateful to Jon Stewart for pushing himself and therefore his fans to think about how we find meaning in our work without that meaning keeping us for stepping into the unknown or at least the uncertain. I said to a colleague recently that our success should limit our horizons. I think Jon Stewart’s departure from The Daily Show reinforces that important idea.