3 ms·

Sounds like Chesterton’s Fence.

• MPSimmons 5y ago
  For anyone, like me, who was unfamiliar with the term: https://fs.blog/chestertons-fence/ https://fs.blog/chestertons-fence/
• mLuby 5y ago
  Chesterton's Fence is indeed linked in this single-page article.
• tomrod 5y ago
  Chesterton's Fence sounds like it was retooled by Jordan Peterson in his definition of truth (broadly: anything evolutionarily useful, Making Sense podcast w/ Sam Harris). Peterson takes it to weird places, IMO, and Chesteron's Fence works better. "Don't remove a fence until you know why it was put there."
  • ajuc 5y ago
    It was a rhetorical device to support conservatism from the beginning. Chesterton was using it to defend Catholicism, but it works just as well for racial segregation, slavery, voting rights restrictions, any status quo.
    • tomrod 5y ago
      That makes a lot of sense. Thanks. It definitely had a "fear the future" vibe in the wikipedia article for it.