Chesterton’s Fence is a simple rule of thumb that suggests you should never destroy a fence, change a rule, or alter a tradition if you do not understand why it was created in the first place. China’s Four Pests Campaign during the Great Leap Forward shows the tragic consequences of meddling with things we do not fully understand.
the full story
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 Principle
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?
chesterton fence in business
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.
tragic example from china
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.
conclusion
Perhaps all those who want to break with traditions, or reform norms, should learn to recite this short line from philosopher G. 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?
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!
Sources
- G.K. Chesterton – Wikipedia.org
- Great Chinese Famine – Wikipedia.org
- Has the sparrow population of China recovered after Mao ordered the killing of all sparrows a few decades ago? – Quora.com
- Street, F. (2022). Chesterton’s Fence: A Lesson in Second Order Thinking.
Dig deeper!
- Read about the Chesterton’s Fence and second order thinking
- On the longevity of ideas, see The Lindy Effect
- On unintended consequences read about the Butterfly Effect and Chaos Theory
- Read about outdated or weird laws in the US, the UK and around the world
Classroom activity
In the following activity, students will learn about the Chesterton’s Fence rule and to critically think about rules and regulations.
- Separate the class in groups of 4 or 5.
- There are still outdated laws in the US and UK or around the world that seem nonsensical. Share a list of them with the class.
- Ask each group to pick one out of ten outdated laws and traditions. They will need to try to understand the reasons it was created in the first place and present them to the class.
- Show them Sprouts’ video on Chesterton’s Fence.
- Ask the groups about the rule, regulation or tradition they chose, and if the reasons they were put in place at the time are still valid today, and if not about the consequences they think removing it would have.
- After each group presented their rule, ask them if they would remove it.
Collaborators
- Script: Jonas Koblin
- Artist: Pascal Gaggelli
- Voice: Matt Abbott
- Coloring: Nalin
- Editing: Peera Lertsukittipongsa
- Production: Selina Bador
- Fact-checking: Ludovico Saint Amour Di Chanaz
- Sound Design: Miguel Ojeda
