Riffing on Chesterton's Fence
Try not to get impaled!
The original parable of Chesterton’s Fence goes something like this:
You’re standing in a field, when you see a strange fence. Not knowing why it’s there, you figure that it’s probably pointless, the relic of a bygone era. So, you tear the fence down. As soon as you do that, a wild bull charges in from the other side of the field and impales you. Woops!
The moral of the story is clear: You should be reluctant to tear down old traditions, even ones that seem arbitrary or outdated. You weren’t there when those traditions were created, and they may be guarding against dangers that you’re unaware of.
In this post, I’d like to add some of my own parables to the mix.
You’re standing in a field, when you see a strange fence. You ask your neighbor why the fence is there. He says, “Well, when my great-great-grandpappy Whittaker settled in these here lands 150 years ago, he put this fence up to protect against wild bulls. Legend has it that if you tear the fence down, a bull will come a-chargin’ and impale you right where you stand!” Intrigued, you decide to investigate the matter. You rent a helicopter and fly over the area looking for bulls. You don’t see any, and you’re reasonably confident that if there ever were bulls around here, they disappeared long ago. So, you feel comfortable tearing the old fence down. As soon as you do that, a wild coyote charges in from the other side of the field and eats you alive. Woops!
It turns out that your neighbor misremembered the story. His great-great-grandpa Whittaker actually built the fence to defend against coyotes, not bulls.
Moral of the story: Even if you think you know why a tradition exists, you should still be hesitant to get rid of it. The tradition might exist for other reasons that you’re unaware of.
You’re standing in a field, when you see a strange fence. You look through a history book about your town, and you learn that the builder of this fence, Mr. Whittaker Fencer, built the fence to keep out wild coyotes. So, you rent a helicopter and fly over the area looking for coyotes. You don’t see any. And just to be safe, you look for other potentially dangerous animals that might be lurking around — bulls, leopards, bears, etc. You don’t see any of those either. You’re confident that no wild animal is gonna show up out of nowhere to attack you. So, you tear the fence down. As soon as you do that, a government agent comes in and arrests you for the crime of residing in an unfenced property.
Moral of the story: Even if a tradition has outlived its original purpose, you should still be hesitant to get rid of it. The tradition might be serving some other purpose that you’re unaware of.
You’re standing in a field, when you see a strange fence. You think to yourself, “Whew! I was worried that I was gonna get impaled by a wild bull today. But thanks to the foresight of a long-gone farmer, I’m safe.” Just then, a wild bull comes charging from your side of the field and impales you, while your neighbor standing on the other side of the fence is unharmed. It turns out that you were standing on the wrong side of the fence.
Moral of the story: Even if a tradition protects somebody from dangers, it won’t necessarily protect you.
You’re standing in a field, when you see a strange fence. You think to yourself, “That’s good! I know I won’t get impaled by a bull from that side of the field, but maybe a bull will still come from my side. I’d better build more fence just to be safe.” So, you build out the fence until you’re totally enclosed on all sides. Just as you finish hammering the last fencepost in, a wild eagle swoops in from the sky and claws your face off.
Moral of the story: Sometimes, no amount of preparation will keep you safe from the dangers that await you.
You’re a wild bull, and your favorite pastime is impaling random humans. Sadly, the farmer who once lived in this area put up a giant fence to prevent you from doing that. But one day, an ignorant schmuck comes by and tears down the fence. Seizing the opportunity, you charge at him as fast as you can and impale him with your horns. Score!
Moral of the story: One man’s tragedy is another man’s triumph.
You’re a wild bull, and your favorite pastime is impaling random humans. Sadly, the farmer who once lived in this area put up a giant fence to prevent you from doing that. The fence is too strong for you to break on your own. But you have an idea. You gather all of your bull friends and charge the fence together; your combined strength breaks through the fenceposts. Then, you all start rampaging through the town, impaling defenseless villagers to your hearts’ content.
Moral of the story: Teamwork makes the dream work.
You’re a human, and you hear disturbing reports from a town nearby about how the wild bulls in that town coordinated to destroy the town’s fences and impale its inhabitants. You only have enough materials to build a modest fence — the kind that can stop one bull, but not a whole team of them. So, you coordinate with your neighbors, pooling resources to build a giant fence that’s both large enough to cover all of your town and strong enough to hold back even a large team of bulls.
When the bulls come to your town, they try to knock down the fence, but they are repulsed. The bulls regroup, and they decide to try a new strategy. They build a catapult and start launching bulls over the town’s fence.
The humans are initially caught off-guard, but they soon respond by building giant stone walls so high that no bull can be launched over it. The bulls respond to the stone wall by building a trebuchet that can launch bulls even higher than before. The humans respond to the trebuchet by firing arrows at the bulls while they’re mid-air. The bulls respond to the arrows by equipping themselves with arrow-proof armor. The humans respond to the armor by building guns that are powerful enough to pierce through it. The bulls respond to the guns by building aircraft that can fly over the town’s walls while surviving a hail of bullets. The humans respond to the aircraft by building anti-aircraft machinery. The bulls respond to the anti-aircraft machinery by developing a cyber-warfare team to hack into the humans’ operating systems.
This process keeps going until both the humans and the bulls are spending a substantial portion of their wealth on this devastating conflict. Both sides want to go back to the simpler days of old-fashioned wooden fences, but if either side unilaterally de-escalates, they’re sure to lose. So the war rages on.
Moral of the story: Sometimes escalation is the game-theory-optimal strategy, even if it leaves both sides worse off in the long run.
You’re standing in a field, when you see a strange fence. Not knowing why it’s there, you figure that it’s probably pointless, the relic of a bygone era. So, you tear the fence down. And…nothing happens. Really, nothing. It’s fine. It turns out that the farmer who put up the fence was just weirdly into fence-building, and you can remove the fence without issue.
Moral of the story: Sometimes, traditions really are outdated and irrational, and sometimes you really should just abandon them.
Would you be okay with me reposting on the slatestarcodex subreddit?
This was great! But I feel like each one needs a Sequences sort of name.