Chesterton's Fence
1Liner
: Before you tear a fence down, you should ask why it was built in the first place
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I was thinking the other day of when JFK was asked why he wasn’t for changing something, he sort of muddled the following quote:
The actual deeper quote goes like this:
But it's generally simplified as:
The point[edit | edit source]
Paraphrasing from many analyses of this quote, the points are there are reformers out there, that run around assuming their fathers were all fools, and that the old laws and constructs serve no purpose but if that’s true, then folly appears to be a hereditary disease.
The gate or fence did NOT grow there: it was not set up by somnambulists who built the fence in their sleep. Some person had some reason for thinking it would be a good thing for somebody. And until we know what the reason was, we really cannot judge whether it was reasonable or not.
So it might well be, that something was created for bad purposes (or have become them), or that it no longer serves a purpose. But nobody has any business to destroy ANYTHING until they first understand how it arose, what purposes it was supposed to serve. And those that wish to destroy or change things without understanding why others created, only prove they're arrogant, lack insight or are not informed enough to know by what sense it was created. (If you assume everything you don’t understand is senseless, it only shows that you are lacking in sense.)
Thus the only time you should allow destruction or change, is when the proponents of that change, can first explain why the other side created it, and how its destruction will improve things (and not lead to the problem that created it in the first place). If they can't do that, without demonizing or vilifying the other side, then they probably aren't to be trusted with the responsibilities of destruction.
Put very simply:
If we had more of this prudence, we’d have far less of the problems and polarization that we have in the world today. We'd also destroy the Democratic Party reason d' etat, would gut the mainstream media, and raise the average IQ of Americans by a few points. But I digress.
The point is demanding reasoning, and being skeptical is not the foundation of being an obstructionist to change, it's the foundation of being wise and humble.
