Don’t Demolish the Chesterton Fence
This incredibly stupid thing happens in Hollywood studios. When a new studio manager replaces the old one, they throw away any old film projects in development and start new ones. You’ve seen this happen in your industry ( and so have I ) because this is what new bosses do. They change everything. This is usually the point of commissioning someone new. When everything works right, we call it reform; when not, we call it a disaster. And there is a way to make sure you are doing everything right.
G.K. Chesterton, writer and drinking companion K.S. Lewis, explained the strategy in his book The Case: Why I’m a Catholic :
There is one clear and simple principle with regard to the transformation of things, as opposed to their deformation; a principle that is likely to be called a paradox. In this case, there is a certain institution or law; let’s say for simplicity, a fence or a gate, erected across the road. More modern reformers take it up cheerfully and say, “I see no benefit; let’s take it away. “
To which the smarter type of reformer will do the right thing if he says, “If you don’t see the benefit, I certainly won’t let you take it away. Go away and think. Then when you come back and tell me you really see the benefit, I can let you destroy it. ”
“Chesterton Fence” is now a popular term for the destruction wrought by overly violent reformers and revolutionaries. This is “bureaucratic red tape” thwarted by business-friendly politicians before a deregulated industry collapses or kills its customers. These are laid-off employees who, it turns out, were slow to get their jobs done because they were doing everyone else’s work. This is what breaks down when you move fast and break things.
Chesterton invented his fence to oppose radical social reforms that decentralized “home life” and family life. He was very angry with the kindergarten idea. But while his argument is an argument for conservation, it is not inherently conservative.
Do you know who actually saw the use of capitalism? Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Seriously, the first chapter of the Communist Manifesto describes how the capitalists turned feudalism and did more shit in one century than all of humanity did before: industrialization, chemistry, steam power, trains, telegraphs, modernized agriculture. “Who from the previous centuries even had a presentiment that such productive forces were dormant in the bosom of social labor?”
They point out that all this productivity also concentrated wealth in the hands of a few – and that this is in fact the goal of capitalism. Their entire manifesto, love it or shed your blood on it in the comments on the blogs, is built on a deep understanding of capitalism as a significant improvement in feudalism. The most controversial revolutionaries in history respect the Chesterton fence. Whatever changes you want to make, whatever you assign responsibility for, you can respect the fence too.