I wasn’t the biggest fan of Game of Thrones – in fact, I still haven’t seen all the episodes. But I saw most of it and have a good grip on the gist of the show.
GoT was a profoundly conservative show, which may surprise social conservatives. After all, the show was known for nudity, incest, violence, and many other vices.
But here’s why it was conservative.
A central feature of GoT is “The Wall.” In Game of Thrones, the wall was built thousands of years ago at the northernmost part of the civilized lands. It’s enormous—700 feet high and hundreds of miles long, built of ice and other materials.
Because the wall was built thousands of years ago, few people believe it is still needed. The reasons for the wall are considered myth. But, as it turns out, there was a very good reason the people of the past built the wall.
The wall in Game of Thrones is reminiscent of a parable by the conservative Christian writer G.K. Chesterton, which first appeared in his 1929 book, The Thing.
Chesterton wanted to explain the difference between the radical reformer and the conservative. So he set up the parable of Chesterton’s Fence.
In his parable, a “modern reformer” comes across a fence, and says “I don’t see the use of this; let’s clear it away.” To which Chesterton replies, the fence obviously did not pop up there naturally, on its own. It was obviously built by intelligent people who must have had some reason for building it. So before tearing it down, investigate why it was built in the first place.
Now, that fence may no longer be needed, but the progressive project is to tear everything down as a rejection of the past, while the conservative impulse is gratitude and respect toward those who went before us, to assume they were wise and intelligent, and to fully understand the reason why they built the fence before tearing it down.
Progressives believe that, if we just tear everything down, something better will naturally appear in its place. Conservatives, on the other hand, understand that the jungle will always grow back if you don’t keep it at bay. That civilization is a construct that has been built over thousands of years by blood and brains and science and thought and experience, and we should be very careful before we tear down the institutions of society as part of the progressive project.
So how does this apply to the debates of today? Well, notice that progressives want to do away with the Electoral College. They don’t like the fact that the Senate is not a proportionally representative body. They don’t like the fact that the Supreme Court isn’t always their tool for change.
Progressives pushed for primaries as a way of choosing candidates, rather than “smoke filled rooms.” They created expert agencies to siphon power away from Congress. Progressives did away with the original constitutional design of the Senate.
Notice also that progressives want to redefine terms, to do away with gender distinctions, to erase boundaries . . . fences . . . that have existed for hundreds and thousands of years.
Change isn’t wrong, and conservatives aren’t simply defenders of the status quo. But the conservative impulse can be summed up by: Before you tear down that fence, maybe find out why it was put up in the first place?
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GoT was a profoundly conservative show, which may surprise social conservatives. After all, the show was known for nudity, incest, violence, and many other vices.
But here’s why it was conservative.
A central feature of GoT is “The Wall.” In Game of Thrones, the wall was built thousands of years ago at the northernmost part of the civilized lands. It’s enormous—700 feet high and hundreds of miles long, built of ice and other materials.
Because the wall was built thousands of years ago, few people believe it is still needed. The reasons for the wall are considered myth. But, as it turns out, there was a very good reason the people of the past built the wall.
The wall in Game of Thrones is reminiscent of a parable by the conservative Christian writer G.K. Chesterton, which first appeared in his 1929 book, The Thing.
Chesterton wanted to explain the difference between the radical reformer and the conservative. So he set up the parable of Chesterton’s Fence.
In his parable, a “modern reformer” comes across a fence, and says “I don’t see the use of this; let’s clear it away.” To which Chesterton replies, the fence obviously did not pop up there naturally, on its own. It was obviously built by intelligent people who must have had some reason for building it. So before tearing it down, investigate why it was built in the first place.
Now, that fence may no longer be needed, but the progressive project is to tear everything down as a rejection of the past, while the conservative impulse is gratitude and respect toward those who went before us, to assume they were wise and intelligent, and to fully understand the reason why they built the fence before tearing it down.
Progressives believe that, if we just tear everything down, something better will naturally appear in its place. Conservatives, on the other hand, understand that the jungle will always grow back if you don’t keep it at bay. That civilization is a construct that has been built over thousands of years by blood and brains and science and thought and experience, and we should be very careful before we tear down the institutions of society as part of the progressive project.
So how does this apply to the debates of today? Well, notice that progressives want to do away with the Electoral College. They don’t like the fact that the Senate is not a proportionally representative body. They don’t like the fact that the Supreme Court isn’t always their tool for change.
Progressives pushed for primaries as a way of choosing candidates, rather than “smoke filled rooms.” They created expert agencies to siphon power away from Congress. Progressives did away with the original constitutional design of the Senate.
Notice also that progressives want to redefine terms, to do away with gender distinctions, to erase boundaries . . . fences . . . that have existed for hundreds and thousands of years.
Change isn’t wrong, and conservatives aren’t simply defenders of the status quo. But the conservative impulse can be summed up by: Before you tear down that fence, maybe find out why it was put up in the first place?
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Today's PolicyByte was written by Tom Giovanetti, president of the Institute for Policy Innovation.