The Overton Window: welcome to “The Twilight Zone”
I am not much of a “binge watcher” but these days of forced isolation have found me viewing lots of Twilight Zone episodes (both old and new). So, when I came across this article describing something called the “Overton Window,” I thought, “Well, gotta read that!”
Just as the charm of the Twilight Zone stories is that sense of them being “almost true,” so it Is with the Overton Window. The concept was named after a book of fiction by none other than Glenn Beck, published in 2010. Beck, a now much-shamed right-wing TV pundit, comes up a what was then considered an outlandish concept: that politicians could use propaganda and lies to shift the public’s perception so that ideas previously thought to be radical would begin to be more acceptable over time.
In 2020, this idea is not so outlandish, you say? I agree, except that Beck was espousing that it was only the left wing spreading lies and conspiracy theories to move the public’s perceptions into the Overton Window. And of course, Fox News-type patriots would come to the rescue and stamp out each… and every… one… of those nasty… conspiracy… theories!
This entire concept turned even more “Twilight Zone” when a think tank in Michigan called the Mackinac Center starts promoting its own Overton Window concept, posthumously named after its late senior vice president, Joseph P. Overton, who went from being an electrical engineer with Dow Chemical to an expert on societal and cognitive thinking. One of his main arguments is that politicians are basically just followers, going along with shifting societal norms which form a window of voter acceptability in various public policies. He cites several excellent examples, such as prohibition. At one time, the public saw drinking as “bad,” and now they are mostly accepting of it. Same goes for marijuana usage.
The public acceptance window (Overton Window) shifts. What was once considered bad might someday be seen as good. Politicians just have to watch this window shift and legislate accordingly. Right? That’s the thing about Twilight Zone concepts, and similar alternative universe theories like the Overton Theory — they are more than half right, which makes them seem entirely right. Powerful lies and conspiracy theories can work that way as well.
The Mackinac Center website addresses the obvious question here: “Can the Overton Window be shifted by lies, distortions or misunderstandings?” Here is their short and sweet retort: “Yes, but it’s obviously wrong to intentionally disseminate misleading information.”
Can’t you just hear that Twilight Zone theme music starting up in the background?
Rod Serling might say, “Imagine you are stuck in a world, not governed by space, time, logic, or morality. A world where politicians, and their little pundit dogs too, spin stories of dubious truths and obvious deceits so that they may lead their followers, like some Pied Piper, through a magical portal which they call the Overton Window. Once there, the people cannot tell the difference between right and wrong, between truth and lies, fact and fiction, windows and brick walls.”
Welcome to the Twilight Zone.
— Ray Brimble
A BRIEF EXPLANATION OF THE OVERTON WINDOW
— THE MACKINAC CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY
Ever wonder how politicians choose which policies they’ll support? Or have you ever noticed that a politician championing one policy idea can win an election in one country, but at the same time no politician in your country will support that same policy? The Overton Window of Political Possibility can help explain these phenomena.
The Overton Window is a model for understanding how ideas in society change over time and influence politics. The core concept is that politicians are limited in what policy ideas they can support — they generally only pursue policies that are widely accepted throughout society as legitimate policy options. These policies lie inside the Overton Window. Other policy ideas exist, but politicians risk losing popular support if they champion these ideas. These policies lie outside the Overton Window.
But the Overton Window can both shift and expand, either increasing or shrinking the number of ideas politicians can support without unduly risking their electoral support. Sometimes politicians can move the Overton Window themselves by courageously endorsing a policy lying outside the window, but this is rare. More often, the window moves based on a much more complex and dynamic phenomenon, one that is not easily controlled from on high: the slow evolution of societal values and norms.
Read the full article on the Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s webpage.
