Question

In Haredi society there is a concept that “the new is forbidden by the Torah,” meaning that basically anything in the modern world is forbidden and must be avoided like fire. And really, all the time they say they are protecting the Jewish people physically and spiritually. The question is: if everything is really forbidden, how do they manage to convince themselves that this is so if they have never broadened their horizons? And how does Haredi society actually succeed if all its thinking is negative—against modernity—and not positive, and based only on evasion (Noah’s Ark), whereas running a society is the opposite of evasion?