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I'm suspicious of seductively clever writers like Chesterton. You'll find this quote on his wikipedia page: > "The whole modern world has divided itself into C

I'm suspicious of seductively clever writers like Chesterton. You'll find this quote on his wikipedia page: > "The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected." Having read some of his Christian apologetic essays, I suspected the fence argument was fundamentally motivated by religion, and again from the wiki page, it originated in from his book "The Thing: Why I Am a Catholic". EDIT: GP said "Progressives tend to be very dismissive of the Chesterton's Fence analogy, because they think change is an unalloyed good." to which parent complained "Why did you need to make this political?". I found Chesterton's own words both relevant and sufficient warrant to broaden the discussion along the lines of the GP.

dccoolgai 5y ago
I read "Man Who was Thursday" and some of his other works... He always struck me as more of a "contrarian" than anything else. If he lived in a time when Christianity/Church was gaining popularity I think he would have declared himself a devout atheist. Reminds me of the "true neutral" alignment from the old Dungeons and Dragons rulebooks.
- anthonygd 5y ago
  You're right. A conservative is a contrarian. They fight change. Chesterton's fence is a rational argument in favor of being conservative.
  - dccoolgai 5y ago
    I don't completely agree. A contrarian, by definition, is responsive to the political context they are in. In Chesterton's time, there was a wave of anarchism finding purchase in academic and philosophical circles: hence he appeared as a conservative. A "conservative" from Chesterton's time doesn't necessarily map cleanly onto the modern notion of the same name... Supposing the allegorical "fence" to be something like clean air or water regulation, one could argue that it's modern "conservatives" more often than not arguing to disturb things without considering second-order effects.
    - anthonygd 5y ago
      I realize it's probably too late to respond, but I don't completely disagree. I really don't like referring to Republican's as conservative or Democrats as liberal precisely because neither party really sticks to those concepts. "Conservatives" as a political unit are not conservative and "Liberals" aren't liberal. The world is a dumb place.
bena 5y ago
First, I see that quote as mocking both sides, it seems more like Chesterton was trying to be an enlightened centrist. To boil it down, his quote is basically "Progressives make new mistakes, conservatives keep repeating old mistakes". And I always felt Chesterton's fence to be advice to be deliberate in your actions. Spending the time and effort to find out why the fence exists, doesn't mean it won't get torn down. It just means that we won't be taking it down spontaneously.

dccoolgai 5y ago

I read "Man Who was Thursday" and some of his other works... He always struck me as more of a "contrarian" than anything else. If he lived in a time when Christianity/Church was gaining popularity I think he would have declared himself a devout atheist. Reminds me of the "true neutral" alignment from the old Dungeons and Dragons rulebooks.

anthonygd 5y ago
You're right. A conservative is a contrarian. They fight change. Chesterton's fence is a rational argument in favor of being conservative.
- dccoolgai 5y ago
  I don't completely agree. A contrarian, by definition, is responsive to the political context they are in. In Chesterton's time, there was a wave of anarchism finding purchase in academic and philosophical circles: hence he appeared as a conservative. A "conservative" from Chesterton's time doesn't necessarily map cleanly onto the modern notion of the same name... Supposing the allegorical "fence" to be something like clean air or water regulation, one could argue that it's modern "conservatives" more often than not arguing to disturb things without considering second-order effects.
  - anthonygd 5y ago
    I realize it's probably too late to respond, but I don't completely disagree. I really don't like referring to Republican's as conservative or Democrats as liberal precisely because neither party really sticks to those concepts. "Conservatives" as a political unit are not conservative and "Liberals" aren't liberal. The world is a dumb place.

bena 5y ago

First, I see that quote as mocking both sides, it seems more like Chesterton was trying to be an enlightened centrist. To boil it down, his quote is basically "Progressives make new mistakes, conservatives keep repeating old mistakes". And I always felt Chesterton's fence to be advice to be deliberate in your actions. Spending the time and effort to find out why the fence exists, doesn't mean it won't get torn down. It just means that we won't be taking it down spontaneously.