Guest Post by Jim Kunstler
The disgrace of America’s putative intellectual class is nearly complete as it shoves the polity further into dysfunction and toward collapse. These are the people Nassim Taleb refers to as “intellectuals-yet-idiots.” Big questions loom over this dynamic: How did the thinking class of America sink into this slough of thoughtlessness? And why – what is motivating them?
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One path to understanding it can be found in this sober essay by Neal Devers, The Overton Bubble, published two years ago on TheFuturePrimaeval.net — a friend turned me on to it the other day (dunno how I missed it). The title is a reference to the phenomenon known as the Overton Window. Wikipedia summarizes it:
The Overton Window, also known as the window of discourse, is the range of ideas the public will accept…. The term is derived from its originator, Joseph P. Overton (1960–2003), a former vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy….
Devers refines the definition:
The Overton Window is a concept in political sociology referring to the range of acceptable opinions that can be held by respectable people. “Respectable” of course means that the subject can be integrated with polite society. Respectability is a strong precondition on the ability to have open influence in the mainstream.
This raises another question: who exactly is in this corps of “respectable people” who set the parameters of acceptable thought? Primarily, the mainstream media — The New York Times, The WashPo, CNN, etc. — plus the bureaucratic functionaries of the permanent government bureaucracy, a.k.a. the Deep State, who make and execute policy, along with the universities which educate the “respectable people” (the thinking class) into the prevailing dogmas and shibboleths of the day, and finally the think tanks and foundations that pay professional “experts” to retail their ideas.
The Overton Window can be viewed as a mechanism of political control, demonizing anyone who departs from the consensus of respectable thought, and especially if they express their heresies in public speech. This has consequences.
Deavers explains:
The trouble with the Overton Window as a mechanism of political control, and with politicization of speech and thought in general, is that it causes significant collateral damage on the ability of your society to think clearly. If some thoughts are unthinkable and unspeakable, and the truth happens in some case to fall outside of polite consensus, then your ruling elite and their society will run into situations they simply can’t handle…. An unwise political elite is one incapable of thinking clearly about their strategic situation, acting in concert, or sticking to a plan…. An insecure political elite is one which has either no sufficient mechanisms of political power short of the politicization of speech and thought, or is faced by such powerful but somehow never decisively powerful enemies that they need to permanently escalate to a state of vigorous politicization of speech and thought. We can compare this state to “intellectual martial law” for its structural similarity to the physical-security equivalent.
We’re now living under that condition of “intellectual martial law.” The consequent degradation of thinking means that the polity can’t construct a coherent consensus about what is happening to it (or devise a plan for what to do about it). This is exactly the point where the Overton Window turns into an Overton Bubble, as described by Devers. The bubble comprises ideas that are assumed to be self-evident (though they actually aren’t) and notions that are potentially destructive of society, even suicidally so. Here is a partial list of the current dogmas and shibboleths inside today’s Overton Bubble:
- Russia hacked the election of 2016 (no evidence required).
- Russia (Vladimir Putin in particular) is bent on destroying the USA.
- All immigrants, legal or illegal, have equal status before the law.
- National borders are inconvenient, cruel, and obsolete.
- Western Civilization is a malign force in human history.
- Islam is “the religion of peace,” no matter how many massacres of “infidels” are carried out in its name.
- Men are a negative force in society.
- White men are especially negative.
- Brownie points given for behaviors under the rubric LBGTQ.
- All discussion about race problems and conflicts is necessarily racist.
- The hijab (head covering worn in public by some Muslim women) is a device of liberation for women.
- There should be a law against using the wrong personal pronoun for people who consider themselves neither men nor women (recently passed by the Canadian parliament).
- A unifying common culture is unnecessary in national life (anything goes).
- Colonizing Mars is a great solution to problems on Earth.
That list defines the general preoccupations of the thinking classes today — to the exclusion of other issues. Here is an alternative list of matters they are not generally concerned about or interested in:
- The energy quandary at the heart of our economic malaise.
- The enormous debt racked up to run society in the absence of affordable energy inputs.
- The dangerous interventions and manipulation in markets by unelected officials of the Federal Reserve.
- The extraordinary dysfunction of manipulated financial markets.
- The fragility of a banking system based on accounting fraud.
- The dysfunction and fragility of the American suburban living arrangement.
- The consequences of a catastrophic breakdown in the economy due to the above.
- The destruction of planetary ecology, threatening the continuation of the human race, and potentially all life.
Now, the question of motive. Why does the thinking class in America embrace ideas that are not necessarily, and surely not self-evidently, truthful, and even self-destructive? Because this class is dangerously insecure and perversely needs to insist on being right about its guiding dogmas and shibboleths at all costs. That is why so much of the behavior emanating from the thinking class amounts to virtue signaling — we are the good people on the side of what’s right, really we are! Of course, virtue signaling is just the new term for self-righteousness. There is also the issue of careerism. So many individuals are making a living at trafficking in, supporting, or executing policy based on these dogmas and shibboleths that they don’t dare depart from the Overton Bubble of permissible, received thought lest they sacrifice their status and incomes.
The thinking classes are also the leaders and foot-soldiers in American institutions. When they are unable or unwilling to think clearly, then you get a breakdown of authority, which leads to a breakdown of legitimacy. That’s exactly where we’re at today in our national politics — our ability to manage the polity.
Read Neal Devers’ excellent article, The Overton Bubble.
I’m shocked! The Elite can’t even park a bicycle straight.
I happen to disagree with the ‘Overton Window’ with its basis of an opinion depending upon a acceptance by ‘respectable people’. Yes, the obvious has been broached by the author for determination of ‘respectable people’.
My thinking is that government, NGO’s, or whatever, as long as the opinion exists and there is money sufficient to exploit that opinion, then it will be foisted upon the public. The environmental NGO’s come to mind and also AARP (for example) – wonderful at first but then later used for devious political purposes.
“We are the good people on the side of what’s right, really we are!” I live in the land of the politically correct, and I’m amazed at the number who hold this opinion of themselves, without any objective facts to support the assertion. And the fact that they hold positions that require nothing of them in terms of action or sacrifice never occurs to them.
“Because this class is dangerously insecure ”
Bla bla bla, what a blathering IDIOT. They’re not insecure. You think they give a damn about what humans think of them?
These creatures are frickin EVIL. E V I L.
Most of us do not understand that for some, evil is as powerful a force as love. Imagine being totally head over heels in love. That is the feeling evil people get by committing evil acts. It is a POWER. That is why they buy up media control and use that control to try to shift the overton window. They are maneuvering society into the best position to maximize the slaughter, which maximizes the release of the dark energy these demons crave so much.
No..it is as simple as insecurity for the vast majority of the people he’s talking about. It which manifests as a haughty air of superiority. There are only a handful of truly evil people…and they are at the very top. But don’t mistake the common variety leftist for the malevolent elite–the former is merely a tool of the latter.
I feel I should hardly need remind anyone here what lies at the end of the path of de-humanizing one’s enemy–which is exactly what is done when calling anyone evil.
Evil does exist in the world – it has power in many places. Pederasts and pedophiles are in D.C. and many other places, and the sexual exploitation of a child by an adult has to be a form of evil. So do most other exploitations of the weak and powerless by the rich and powerful – payday lenders, Wall Street bankers (particularly Goldman Sachs and J P Morgan Chase), bureaucrats in EPA, DoEd, H&HS, pick one – those who cripple Americans with needless regulations and vindictive fines. It’s evil – and you will have to choose whom you serve.
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Good point. Dehumanimalizing is what all congealed sides\mobs\packs always have in common. Fuel’s em. Like cocaine, amphetamines, etc. Junk in, junk out. Blood in, blood out.
Also a big part of the cohesive adhesive. Someday they’ll live like horses that don’t stampede into the glue factories of us good them evil (it’s a song, not an actual prognostication).
Kunstler nails it again, It does seem we are under a sort of intellectual martial law. What the masters of the universe have thus far not figured out is. Just as physical martial law can only be enforced where there is high density human existence, intellectual martial law can only be enforced on those who still trust the rulers. As long as the inter webs are alive and well the elite will never have full compliance with their rigid dogmas and failing shibboleths. No matter how many times they affirm to themselves, ‘We are good enough, we are smart enough, and doggone it, people like us.
And so the bubble grows…
I found it interesting to use the 50’s, 60’s etc. to watch the growth of the bubble. Post WWII, America was riding the wave of we are the good guys, with a few who might disagree; you know, the outcasts. The first test was the “assasination” (read murder) of JFK, the bubble was stretched, but held firm. The viet nam war stirred up a hornets nest of demonstrations, but again were shouted down with we couldn’t be that bad. Fast forward to the September 11th WTC attacks and the limits of the bubble are at the breaking point.
Today the “newscasts” are drifting further and further from reality, to the point of becoming a joke (remember Baghdad Bob). This and the tsunami of all the truths of the past coming to light (maybe they weren’t outcasts after all) is leading to an epic struggle by TPTB to attempt to save the bubble; a task that will be impossible to accomplish.
My only question then, when the brick goes through the Overton Window, how much of the American resolve will remain when the majority of Americans will realize we weren’t so good after all, were we?
Love and protect family and friends and prepare for the storm.
Kunstler has opened his eyes to at least some of the insanity of the leftist establishment, and good on him. But his politically correct roots are still showing — see, for instance, his list of “alternative list of matters [the virtue signalers] are not generally concerned about or interested in.”
He can’t bring himself to mention the devastating overpopulation of the third world, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, which is gathering bulk to overwhelm Europe and eventually all White countries. That is outside his Overton Window. Blacks can’t be criticized for any irresponsibility or their low average IQ acknowledged in his worldview.
Hmmm..
No mention of endless wars???
True…and the USA (as dictators) using
banned weapons here there and everywhere,
paid warriors to accomplish goals of acquisition
for themselves and others. This is against the law!
JHK is in the “unsustainable” future group.
He can’t be the renaissance man for all seasons.
I don’t mind solid karma for the perps, but it is
a shame that karma can sweep us all up within it.
JHK,
You have written a good one!
*Virtue signaling ( espc. en mass) betrays the
signalers as true sheep. The “me too” bullshitters.
*”The dysfunction and fragility of the American suburban living arrangement.”
I am tired of hearing about this without some
defining parameters. In a large county the suburbs
may flow seamlessly from the city. Further out,
= small cities/suburbs?… further out farms and small
towns, undeveloped land, farms, more small towns,
etc. Here and there one spots a “Development”
which is either a ticky tacky arrangement of cardboard houses/no trees/just planted shrubs….
or a massive apartment complex/bedroom
community. Is that what JHK refers to? Consider
DC/the “suburbs” extend to neighboring states.
LOL I only question this one on the apt list.
Thanks
He had me until this:
“The destruction of planetary ecology, threatening the continuation of the human race, and potentially all life”.
If that isn’t one of the “guiding dogmas and shibboleths” of the so-called “thinking class” in America I don’t know what is.
The “climate change denier” epithet has become so prevalent that it is one of the usage examples for the word denier in the dictionary.
See, you reveal your preconceptions because you ASSUME he is just talking about global climate change.
I think he is talking about our general destruction of the “commons”, where there is no denying that the environment is suffering from the negligence of humanity (e.g., 50% of all wild animal populations have been killed/used in the last 50 years, you can’t eat any fish from a river without getting a healthy dose of toxics and/or heavy metals, the collapse of many major fisheries in the past 50 years, like cod and oysters etc., etc.).
Are you going to deny all of science or are you a selective denier?
The tragedy of the commons is the commons. And the commons pushers are the commonest criminals of ’em all.
Blah, Blah, Blah.
YOU reveal your preconceptions and buying into the “we’re killing Gaia” BS.
And it is BS.
No, I just prefer not to eat where I shit, and everyone else’s shit (i.e., pollution) keeps ending up on my dinner plate.
One of the properties of property is – at least potentially, if that’s what you want – shit-free plates. The commons is the opposite. Turning down this particular delicacy does not mean Tony B. hasn’t swallowed plenty elsewhere & when. That goes for everybody. Tragedy of the commons: shit suffusion.
RICKER: There’s two kinds that you can get here. One is the addition of ki ang(ph) which means young shit. So, it’s basically the partially digested juice that’s made from when a cow eats grass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyRbNUwb-G4
The Overton Bubble will pop when the powers that be make it illegal ( with jail time ) to criticize certain protected groups. That crap may work in Canada or the UK but not here .
If you cannot discuss reality you cannot cope with reality. Reality, however, wins. We will find the vocabulary to discuss reality when it has sufficient personal impact. Strategic vocabulary will arrive as strategies change: impacted Europeans have been burning down the “refugee” housing centers.
Ah, but coping strategies are all too often denials, other character armoring, seeking escape from reality. Words are approximations, have always contained more than enough wiggle room to guarantee us\them waste. Words aren’t just double-edged s\words. they are spherical-edged weapons of mass suicide. Because they are so inebriating. Because drunks take so seriously the proposition they are fine to drive. In the beginning was the word. Then, immediately, came the justifications – words – for all the stolen-spilled blood.
Welcome back James, this one you’ve got right.
“Intellectual martial law” is a good way to describe the current situation. It seems that more and more people are not scared of being called ‘racist’ or ‘islamaphobic’ or whatever silly name people want to call people they disagree with. I wonder how long until the phrase ‘conspiracy theory’ loses its power? When it does, then it may mean that we are gaining a foot hold in the war against “intellectual martial law”.
Peter’s’s one & only principle is to *climb* to the utmost reaches of their incompetence. Robbing & raping along the way to pay paul to warn them of impending arrival of rival peters, who want to monopolize the robbing & raping & paying of *their* pauls. It’s all just unjustly appalling.
Later, after the number of peters occupying those various aerie boughs gets too heavy, perches snap, *then* gravity sinks ‘em into the slough.
But despite the tremendous racket – & sounds – perches make when they fall in the forest, many of the dwellers there don’t hear a thing, don’t see a thing, don’t feel a thing. But boy do they ever just keep on saying the same thing: peters, get your asses up into those trees! Paulbaby needs a new pair of shoes! This almost always considered to be respectable.
The part of Overton’s window that’s definitely true: defenestration. Because it involves a window. And gravity.
Bastiat’s window is more useful. If not respectable, according to the marauding peters & pauls.
Greetings,
Jim is right on this one. Yesterday, I had a date with an environmental attorney that works for one of the federal government’s alphabet agencies (actually, I forget which one). She is the person that would oversee some ridiculous 20,000 page environmental study on whether a choo-choo train should be built or the catastrophic consequences of putting a storm sewer too close to the ocean. Anyway, I should have ended the date once I figured out that she was a raving lunatic liberal but I thought that engaging her in discussion might be more entertaining.
I didn’t play my hand immediately but began probing around by asking what appeared to be innocent questions. It didn’t take long to put it all together and that she actually had zero understanding of how anything related to nature worked. None. She had zero understanding of how her work affected the local economy. She had zero knowledge of history or economics and I found her to be one of the most vacuous women that I’ve ever met.
I gave her plenty of rope to hang herself and then the gloves came off. Needless to say, within a few minutes she probably felt about 2″ tall as a self employed mad scientist pointed out how 100% useless and counter productive she actually was to our community. I pointed out that by her standards, I may as well call myself a brain surgeon as I knew as much about that as she knew about the environment that she claims to represent. Seriously, I’m not sure if she knew that the Earth moved about the Sun or if it were the other way ’round. I finished by stating that getting paid by the government to do nothing is called Welfare and that I don’t date women on welfare.
Kunstler is correct. There are words and ideas that the ruling elite can not use and this has put them out of touch with the 90% of us that have no choice but to live in the real world.
Apparently, you missed your chance to get her in the sack. Used to be these lefty babes were easy pickings.
Don’t put your dick in crazy.
Man, is that ever good advice… which I learned the hard way (no pun intended).
My sympathies.
In a rational world, the irrational would not reproduce; stupidity would have at best a one-generation effect era.
Men having dicks and frequently being ruled by them, the irrational reproduce and carry the crazy forward.
It sounds like you did the right thing. Kudos for being aware in time to avoid “undesirable complications”.