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> Sometimes, Chesterson's fence was erected by a shepherd who no longer uses the field that you'd rather play soccer on. It was useful in its day, but no longer
by karaterobot 4y ago
> Sometimes, Chesterson's fence was erected by a shepherd who no longer uses the field that you'd rather play soccer on. It was useful in its day, but no longer.
I mean, that's the point of the metaphor: before knocking down the fence, figure out what purpose it served in the first place. It's not a question of "don't ever knock down a fence" or "always knock down fences".
- klyrs 4y ago> It's not a question of "don't ever knock down a fence" or "always knock down fences". Exactly my point. "Tradition is smarter than you" implies that I won't be able to out-think it. When, in fact, tradition is overturned quite regularly and quite often with extremely good reasoning. Always doing the same thing is dumb -- be that holding or throwing out tradition. Mindless adherence to tradition is just as stupid as mindlessly discarding tradition. Tradition is not smarter than me, tradition is mindless. Critical thinking wins.
- karaterobot 4y agoYour upstream comment made me think you were interpreting the linked article as saying "if something is traditional, it must be wise, thus we should follow it." But it is not saying that, by my reading. It is saying: because the pace of generational change is increasing, applying the Chesterton's Fence rule to traditions is increasingly difficult, thus many people abandon it and try to work from first principles."