Suppose there is a fence erected in the middle of nowhere that’s blocking your path: what
do you do? Do you take it down in order to continue on your way? Or do you first think
hard about why it is there to begin with?
Chesterton's Fence is a simple rule of thumb that suggests that you should never destroy
a fence, change a rule, or do away with a tradition until you understand why it’s
there in the first place.
The principle assumes that fences have a purpose, were carefully planned, and cost time and
money to erect. Someone must have had a reason for thinking that a fence would be a good
idea. So what if we just take them down?
Entrepreneur Steve Blank likes to point out that when startups get their first Chief Financial
Officer, the newly hired often wants to show that they are proactive and cut costs. Some
go as far as calculating the expense of the free snacks offered to employees and then
start charging the staff a small fee.
People can of course pay, but they don’t like this change in company culture — and
many may quit. As a result, the firm makes pennies on the nuts but spends thousands hiring
new engineers. All because the reformer didn’t understand the purpose of the policy he axed.
A more tragic example of misguided reform was China’s so-called Great Leap Forward,
which lasted from 1958 to 1962. One of its initiatives was the Four Pests Campaign
to eliminate all mosquitoes, flies, rats, and even sparrows that were suspected of stealing
grain from the fields.
And so millions of people hit noisy pots and pans to prevent sparrows from resting, with
the goal of causing them to drop dead from exhaustion. Some simply shot the birds down
from the sky. Others destroyed their nests and broke their eggs.
The campaign worked and pushed the Chinese sparrow population to near extinction. So
what about the unintended consequences?
With no sparrows to eat them, locust populations ballooned, swarming the country and compounding
the problems caused by other reforms. The consequence was the Great Chinese Famine,
one of the largest man-made disasters in human history, with a death toll in the tens of
millions.
Perhaps all those who want to break with traditions,
or reform norms, should learn to recite this
short line from philosopher F. K. Chestertons’ original 1929 writing:
“In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and
simple principle.”
Let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate is erected across a road. The
more modern type of reformer goes up to it and says, 'I don't see the use of this; let
us clear it away.' To which, the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer:
'If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think.
Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you
to destroy it.”
What do you think? Is Chesterton's defense of conservatism a good rule to live by? Or
do you also need people to break down old structures even if they don’t fully understand
why they were built in the first place? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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