Back when they had more ideas than subservience, those who call themselves “conservatives” liked to invoke “Chesterton’s Fence,” a parable by the English philosopher G.K. Chesterton. His allegory, they said, illustrated the difference between progressive and conservative attitudes toward institutions.
Chesterton wrote, “There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily 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.’”
The parable’s wisdom is this: Do not destroy something before you understand its purpose — the reason for which someone labored to build it. Especially because it is much harder to construct a fence than to tear one down.
Oftentimes, the aim of a longstanding institution — one of Chesterton’s fences — is fulfilled so successfully that it is considered natural by new generations, and therefore, assumed to be inevitable. It is then when such a fence is most vulnerable, as people see the costs of maintaining it but fail to appreciate the benefits. Only after destroying it do they realize the conditions it produced were quite unnatural.
Progressives confronted this lesson in 2020, among other times, following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Condemning law enforcement as irredeemably bigoted, they sought to “defund the police.” Many cities obliged, only to find that general adherence to laws (including those against murder) is not a given. Americans determined that police are a sometimes dangerous yet extremely necessary pillar beneath civil society.
These days, it is Republicans — especially the occupant of the White House — who are mowing down Chesterton’s fences with glee. The president and his subordinates are oblivious to history, and thus, of the tremendous efforts and sacrifices undertaken to deliver once unimaginable blessings of modernity. They are blowing up the foundations of skyscrapers and expecting the structures to stay suspended in air.
The emblematic image of this administration’s “Destroy first, ask questions later” mindset was Elon Musk, leader of the misnamed Department of Government Efficiency, brandishing a chainsaw to symbolize his incurious cuts to the federal workforce. Incurious because Musk’s team did not think to check whether certain workers they jettisoned oversee an arsenal of nuclear warheads or combat avian flu.
Fired workers can be rehired, though. Other useful things, like due process of law, cannot be reconstituted so easily. The requirement that government prove one has committed a crime before punishing them for it is not some nicety, as Vice President Vance pretends, but an indispensable barrier against tyranny, as the nation’s founders knew and the 14th Amendment’s authors reiterated. When government can exact punishment without having to marshal proof of wrongdoing, the innocent are no more secure than the guilty.
Most living Americans do not remember a time when thousands of children were sentenced to wheelchairs by polio each year, or when contracting measles by age 15 was an expectation. Our escape from these and many other horrific diseases was not a miracle, but the result of human dedication and ingenuity distilled into vaccines. The Secretary of Health and Human Services now wishes to see how healthy Americans can be with fewer vaccinations. We will soon find out.
Participation in international exchange is another one of Chesterton’s fences under the ax. Protectionism through high tariffs was the norm throughout history, predicated upon pre-economic instincts of national loyalty. An ungovernable system of free trade had to be forged over decades, without which modern levels of prosperity and abundance would be impossible. Now, as empty store shelves approach, Americans will learn just how much of their lifestyles came from overseas. Children, according to the president, will need to make do with just three dolls and five pencils.
Our most dangerous ingratitude, by far, is for the security that comes from a relatively peaceful world. This, too, is a historical aberration. Most Republicans, including those in the executive branch, seem to have no idea why America maintains alliances with fellow democratic nations in Europe and beyond. The reason they miss is that collective security was, and remains, the key to realizing the unprecedented global stability they take for granted. This ignorance has bred contempt, which is why the president is intent on exploiting and threatening America’s allies. At a certain point, they will cease to be just that.
Thomas Hobbes recognized that life in mankind’s natural state was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” If the current administration succeeds at tearing down all of Chesterton’s fences that surround it, the nation will realize that its natural state is much the same.
This article has been updated to include a more accurate hyperlink to demonstrate Puri’s argument regarding police defunding.