I have a great fondness for the English short-story writer, journalist and apologist G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), and I have lived long enough to see his conservative fence metaphor re-enter common parlance in the English-speaking world. The canonical version of “Chesterton’s Fence” comes from his 1929 book The Thing: Why I Am a Catholic:

Now, you can only be found 'guilty' or 'not guilty' of a crime in Scotland. What consequences this will have, we don't yet know{ai:summary}Chesterton's Fence: don't discard a tradition until you know why it's there. The canonical version is from The Thing: Why I Am a Catholic (1929). #religion

Colby Cosh: Scotland got rid of its 'not proven' verdict. But what does that mean?

Loading...