Chesterton’s Fence
G. K.
Chesterton famously described good reform as a long period of reflection prior
to action. If you come to a fence that is of no use to you, don’t break it
down, instead figure out why it is there in the first place, and only then make
a decision about whether it should be torn down or not.
A pretty
simple concept, but one that is the backstop for most conservativism. “Conserve
the fence, you fast paced and foolish liberals! Understand the fence’s function,
before you start doing something new with it. Make sure you know the root of
the thing before you root it out.”
Chesterton’s
idea is why I would encourage any pastor at a new call to listen for about a
year, before making substantial changes to how the congregation functions.
Write down every “new” idea you have for the community but go a full liturgical
year and see if that new thing is done in some other way, so that you don’t
accidently replace a good and functional thing with a half thought out change.
Your mere presence as the new pastor will likely be enough change for the
congregation without imposing a bunch of new stuff right out of the gate.
I bring
all this up, because it seems like in our political life today, the
traditionally conservative party is not taking a beat, in order to see how our
country’s fences function; they are not being conservative.
The Fence is Already Trampled
Now, to
be fair to the so-called conservatives, they maintain that the fence has
already been trampled down, and they have to do radical atypical things to right
the ship. Essentially, in a crisis actions, not reflection, is the priority.
So, to use
the pastor new to a congregation example again. A global health crisis occurred
as I became the pastor at my current call. That meant I had to move fast and
make decisions without the level of reflection or deference to history that I
would have sans crisis. The fence was already toppled by external pressures,
and I simply did what I could to restore and maintain some sort of equilibrium.
The
Republicans are making the same claim: there is a crisis that require action
without reflection to restore and maintain an equilibrium. My concern about
this is two-fold: 1. What is the actual crisis? 2. What is the equilibrium we
are shooting for?
Multitudinous crises:
For some the crisis is abortion;
Roe v. Wade has normalized a “genocide state” and extreme measures are required
to end the slaughter of the unborn, even if it means a bunch of women will be
denied healthcare—abortion and not—and some of them will die or become disabled
by childbirth.
For others the crisis is immigration;
illegal immigration is too high, asylum laws are too loose, and the countries
of origin of legal immigrants are "undesirable." Often times, attached to this are
worries about the flow of illegal drugs.
For still others, the crisis is DEI;
in some ways, concerns about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are parallel to
the first two crises. Women having full bodily autonomy, including access to
abortion, and immigrants coming from non-European countries, shifts culture; it
changes how things get done in our country. For some Republicans that shift is
a grave threat, instead of a vitalizing dynamic; cultural discomfort is an
existential threat.
For others, the crisis is one of lost
dynamism; America has lost “The Hop.” We don’t manufacture things here and a
country centered around service and government jobs stifles adaptation and
innovation. Red tape makes building new houses complicated and unaffordable,
and there are fewer paths for working class folk to get ahead.
What is the preferred equilibrium? When is “Again”?
The
big unanswered question of Trumpism is when is the “Again” in “Make America
Great Again.” Personally, I think that’s the point, it is open ended. It is a
Rorschach test of the same caliber as Obama’s progressive, “Yes We Can” … can
what? The “Again” is the spot we project all our hopes and dreams.
Now, my
own “Again” would be the immediate post-Cold War period up until 9-11. It was
the time when the whole world celebrated the triumph of capitalism, and every
culture and idea was welcome to join the marketplace of ideas. It was a period
of time when anything was possible, the entire world could address major
problems without the fracturing ideological lens of the Cold War, likewise,
America could make geopolitical decisions that were right, instead of decisions
that would simply counter communist activity… America was great then: we
defeated and redeemed the Evil Empire through culturally adept soft power and
Saddam through technologically sophisticated hard power, the president played a
saxophone, we took concrete steps to protect the environment, the personal computer and internet were popularized, the stock
market did nothing but go up, and even Russia wanted to join Nato!
To be clear, this is my incredibly rose-colored
glasses version of the 90s and early 2000s, but that’s the vibes I’d
project onto Trump’s “Again” if my politics was primarily backwards looking
instead of forward looking.
So, I
wonder, what is the equilibrium point Trump voters are hoping for? Perhaps…
-For the anti-abortionists it is the Pre-Roe 1970s?
-Or for the anti-immigration folks the pre-Immigration and Nationality Act
1960s?
-Or the people who miss “The Hop” the post-World War 2 boom times of the 1950s?
-Or judging by the tariffs and a policy of annexing Greenland, Canada, and the Panama
Canal, the 1890s?
That
said, I’ve heard some pretty out there and ahistorical “Agains” from my fellow
millennials, not to mention people younger than me:
-We’re going back to the 1050s, before the great Schism between Eastern and
Western Christianity; an Evangelical-Russian Orthodox cultural alliance will
return us to greatness, that’s why we are siding with Putin!
-We’re going back to the 1450s, before the fall of Constantinople and along
with it the “Roman” cultural ideal: hierarchy, agrarianism, and family!
-We’re going back to the 1550s, say the “Theo-bros” who hope to restore that
brief period when John Calvin set up a Theocracy in Geneva.
For that
matter, and in the most extreme, you have folks like Steve Bannon, looking to a
Europe oriented toward a traditionalist Vatican and a “Christian” Emperor. Bannon
is publicly feuding with another end of the "conservative" spectrum, Peter Thiel and Elon Musk,
who hope to build a “techno-feudalist” future. And then we have Richard Spencer of Unite the Right who, in his podcasts, cite Far Future Science Fiction as his “Again,”
particularly the tabletop game Warhammer 40K and the Dune books, both of which are
centered around a “God-Emperor.”
The Fences we’ve Destroyed
And all of this brings me to the
fences being trampled. There are, of course, all the big ones making headlines:
the Department of Education and USAID shoved in a corner to be ignored,
intentionally cruel mass firings of federal employees, overturning world trade
without a plan, attacks on judges and the rule of law, non-profits being
insulted, defunded, and undermined, and hairdressers and students being
snatched up off the streets, bound for God help them. But those might seem a little abstract, and a
little too far off. So, here are three examples I’ve personally come across recently
that highlight how fragile life is, and how tearing down fences have real
consequences and costs to them.
I have peers doing the squish
generation thing—caring for both their kids and their elderly parents—who have lost
their jobs as part of the firing of federal employees. This isn’t just
devastating for them, but for their extended family! Sure, they will likely get
their job back in 6 months to a year, along with backpay, once everything works
its way through the courts, but you can’t pay mortgages or medical expenses with
IOUs!
Due to severe
cuts in funding of the USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation, as well as the
Local Food Purchase Assistance Program, our local pantry will lose access to low-cost
meats and cheeses, and in a few months’ time fresh produce as well. We make
sure 30 families, 25+ kids, a little over 100 people all told, make it to the
end of the month without going hungry. These cuts make our mission all the
harder, and our offerings all the more meager.
I have a
colleague who had discerned it was time to retire. He’d put in his paperwork
and he and his wife were starting to make plans for their next phase of life.
Then the stock market bottomed out. He’s back in and plans to stick things out
for the foreseeable future.
Life is
fragile enough without someone taking a metaphorical baseball bat to it.
It is hard enough to discern that God is calling you to a retired life, having
that taken away…
Being food insecure, and then having your source of fresh fruits and
vegetables, meat and cheese for your kids, reduced or eliminated…
Being simultaneously pulled and sandwiched by your parents and your child, and
faithfully making it all work, then to lose your ability to provide for any
of them…
Ends and Means
I wonder,
if the goal is ending abortion, why is the administration going out of their
way to attack Lutheran and Catholic institutions that care for orphans and walk
families through adoptions? I wonder, if the goal is tightly regulating
immigration, why did candidate Trump and then Senator Marco Rubio torpedo bi-partisan
immigration reform over and over again, since at least 2013?
I wonder if we really want to go
back to the 1960s? As much as corporate DEI stuff can be ham fisted, wasn’t
segregation and women not being allowed to have credit cards of their own legitimately
awful in retrospect? I wonder, wasn’t the CHIPS Act and the Infrastructure Bill
an attempt to re-create the manufacturing dynamism of the 1950s for the 2020s?
My worry is that we’re not asking
retirees to suffer for a bit, so that the traditional family can flourish. My
worry is that we’re not hurting federal employees and their families, so that we
secure our border and limit DEI. My worry is that we’re not asking the poor to
tighten their belts even more, so that good jobs and plenty are on the way.
My worry
is that the odder “Agains”: theocracy or techno feudalism, God Emperors or European
style monarchy, are the ends for which this fence breaking is occurring. We’re hurting
people in the name of speculative fiction! The passing fancies of the rich and
the violent are being masked with more mundane concerns.
My worry is that we’re hurting
people as an end unto itself. We’re hurting people to assert power.
My worry, ultimately, is that singularly
beautiful and fragile lives are being damaged for no good reason, and we’re
justifying means for mean ends.
That fence is someone’s golden
years, that fence makes a family whole, that fence keeps poor folks fed. Take a
moment to consider the fence, it is worthy of our time and our care.
