It's the best mental model for understanding how political change ACTUALLY happens
A thread...
1/ Overton was a libertarian political scientist. In the 1990s, while raising funds for rightwing thinktank "Makinac Center," he kept meeting donors who didn't understand what thinktanks actually do. He coined a new concept to solve this problem: Window of Political Possibilities
2/ Overton argued that politicians are not leaders but followers
Since they want to get re-elected, they'll only turn those proposals into policy which already have some public appeal
A totally unpopular idea? Political suicide. Outside the "window of political possibilities"
3/ Overton argued that a think-tank's job is not to convince politicians, but their VOTERS
A great think-tank will—using research, writing, films, and advocacy—slide the window of political possibilities until their preferred proposal goes from unthinkable to acceptable
4/ You can't expect politicians to not respond to public will. Even Napoleon said: "Public opinion is the thermometer a monarch should constantly consult." But what you can do is persuade, nudge, seduce, and pull the public over to your side. This is why "Culture Wars" matter
5/ The best way to boil a frog is slowly
The best way to turn an unthinkable idea into a popular law is not via the parliament but the public square
Politics is downstream of song lyrics, viral tweets, movie plots, museum exhibitions. First normalize, then legalize...
6/ In 2003, Joe Overton tragically crashed his one-seat aircraft and died. He was only 43. His think-tank colleague Joseph Lehman renamed the "Window of Political Possibilities" into the "Overton Window"
The rest is history...
7/ Moldbug writes: "Cthulhu only swims left." That is, with local variations, the Overton window in modern politics only shifts leftward. She/her pronouns went from a tumblr micro-trend to official Kamala Harris speeches in less than 10 years. Is Moldbug right?
8/ 2024 is proof that with the right combination of free speech, ungovernable billionaires, & feisty schizo edits, Cthulhu can swim right. Yesterday's sacred truism is the butt of today's joke. Much that was revered in 2018 is mocked in 2024. The Overton Window has shifted right
9/ When people online say "Just be Normal Bro" - they're saying "Just be inside the Overton Window Bro"
THAT is where most people are ever going to be - inside the Overton Window
The window itself can never be destroyed - people need psychic orientation. Too much light blinds..
There are decades when the Overton Window slides by micrometers...there are weeks when it slides by a mile
Poast well, friends! For you, too, can slide the window...
But you probably don't think of symbolic corruption and spiritual warfare...
Here is Julius Evola on communism's endgame:
1/ In The Inversion of Symbols(1928), Evola writes that modern revolutionary movements take "traditional symbols" of healthier societies from the past and give them a NEW spin
He digs into 3 symbols:
• The color red
• The word revolution
• The symbol of the pentagrammic star
2/ Evola on RED
In Ancient Rome, the Emperor was dressed and dyed in purplish Red to "represent Jove, the King of the Gods"
In Catholicism, the "Princes of the Church,” the cardinals, wear a scarlet red robe
Traditionally, red has been linked with hierarchy, order, and power
• Beyond Good and Evil (1886)
• Thus Spake Zarathustra (1883)
• The Will To Power (1888)
Meet: "The Nietzsche Haus." Here are some pictures and stories from my recent trip...
1/ The Nietzsche Haus is in Sils Maria, a charming town deep in the Swiss Alps. Right next to the town is Lake Sils. Fed by glaciers, it has the highest boating line in Europe. I'll show the boat ride video, but first, see the streets Nietzsche walked as he dreamt up his books...
2/ Nietzsche Haus is an independent museum now. For me the best part was the Nietzsche Library, a room with 4000+ books on the bad boy of philosophy. Found 3 interesting books:
• Nietzsche, The Aristocratic Rebel
• Reading Nietzsche Rhetorically
• Nietzsche's Epic Of The Soul
A literary rockstar at 24. Almost executed by a firing squad at 28...
Exiled to Siberia. Returns to write some of the greatest books ever...
In his lesser-known letters and essays, we get a more intimate look at what he loved, hated, fiercely believed in
Dig in👇🏻
1/ Dostoevsky believed life is only possible when you have a philosophical north star you swear by:
"Neither a person nor a nation can exist without some higher idea"
Dostoevsky: "In order to maintain itself and live, every society must necessarily respect someone & something"
2/ In his essay against Environmental determinism, Dostoevsky writes:
"The doctrine of the environment reduces man to an absolute nonentity, exempts him totally from every personal moral duty and from all independence, reduces him to the lowest form of slavery imaginable..."
Elon Musk reminds me of Carlyle's 1841 book on heroes. Carlyle wrote the single most important quality in great men is their sincerity. They stand directly upon reality, not upon the consensus, the status quo, the norms. Elon calls it first principles thinking, but same thing
Short-term incentives always tell you to ignore baseline reality and respond to office politics, interpersonal drama, status games. You require a strange combination of high IQ, low agreeableness, high openness, low neuroticism, to ignore the short-term & deal with reality as is
Elon Musk is also a lesson in why we need ostentatious wealth. Thank God he made $150 million on PayPal. Without that windfall...no SpaceX, no Tesla, no Starlink, no free speech on the internet. Someone will always wield power. Better driven men than faceless bureaucracies...
Yesterday, Elon Musk unveiled the Robovan, and it was Art Deco
Why is this dead 1920s movement making a comeback?
And who killed it in the first place?
A thread with all the answers...
1/ Art Deco began with a breakup. Now called the "Vienna Secession" a bunch of visionaries resigned from the "Association of Austrian Artists" in 1897 to chart new territory. The hero's journey begins. Their first project - the "Secession Building" in Vienna (still standing)
2/ The Vienna Secession had painters (Klimt), advertisers (Josef Maria Auchentaller), architects ( Josef Hoffmann), and more. Their vision was to promote "Total Art," combining music, geometry, interior decor, architecture, painting, and other forms in dizzying new ways...