G. K. Chesterton: The Great Defender of Tradition

G. K. Chesterton was well-known (and iconoclastic) in his defense of tradition in a time when progress was all the rage in Western Europe- in technology, in the sciences, in philosophy. Chesterton, on the other hand, believed that tradition represents the greatest thought of those that preceded us and therefore ought to be given the benefit of the doubt over newer ideas and ways of being. 

He explained it through a story, which can be summarized like this: “If you come across a fence in a field and don’t know why it’s…