The Overton Window
What is behind mechanisms of persuasion and manipulation of the masses? How can an idea be transformed from unacceptable to accepted? Let's try to answer
«If we look at what has been happening in our society for a few decades, we find that are undergoing a slow drift to which are becoming accustomed» — Noam Chomsky
Advertising experts and marketers are familiar with them, and increasingly they are applying sophisticated techniques on a global scale created by business and political ‘think tanks’ to steer public thinking and inclinations. This is basically typical pattern of dictatorships. Indeed, one wonders, often in retrospect, how entire peoples, not only and always as a result of violent pressure, could at some point find themselves all thinking in exactly the same way and supinely sharing lifestyles previously not even imaginable, only to find themselves finally locked up in a cave of imprisonment, as in the fairy tale of the Pied Piper.
What is a think tank? — Literally reservoir of thought, but translatable as study center, research, laboratory of ideas, it is a body, an institution that tends to be independent of political forces (although there is no shortage of governmental study centers), concerned with public policy analysis and thus with areas ranging from social policy to political strategy, from economics to science and technology, from industrial or trade policy to military advice, and even art and culture.
Yet it has happened, it happens and it will happen again. In the age of Internet and Artificial Intelligence, boundless new horizons have opened up, where scenarios worthy of Orwell and Benson's dystopian novels, dominated by invisible big brothers and masters of the world, seem to materialize. Any idea, if skillfully and progressively channeled into the circuit of media and public opinion, can become part of the mainstream, that is, of widespread and dominant thought. Behaviors that were unacceptable yesterday may be considered normal today, tomorrow they will be encouraged, and day after tomorrow they will become the rule, all without apparent forcing.
This is what is called «The Overton Window»

«Se guardiamo ciò che succede nella nostra società da alcuni decenni ci accorgiamo che stiamo subendo una lenta deriva alla quale ci abituiamo» — Noam Chomsky
Esperti di pubblicità e marketers ben le conoscono e sempre di più applicano tecniche sofisticate su scala globale create dai think tank dell’economia e della politica per orientare il modo di pensare e le inclinazioni dell’opinione pubblica. In fondo è lo schema tipico delle dittature. Ci si chiede infatti, spesso a posteriori, come interi popoli, non solo e non sempre a seguito di pressioni violente, abbiano potuto a un certo punto trovarsi a pensare tutti nello stesso identico modo e a condividere supinamente stili di vita prima nemmeno immaginabili, per ritrovarsi infine rinchiusi in una caverna di prigionia, come nella fiaba del pifferaio magico.
Che cos'è un think tank? — Letteralmente serbatoio di pensiero, ma traducibile come centro studi, centro di ricerca, laboratorio d'idee, è un organismo, un istituto tendenzialmente indipendente dalle forze politiche (anche se non mancano centri studi governativi), che si occupa di analisi delle politiche pubbliche e quindi di settori che vanno dalla politica sociale alla strategia politica, dall'economia alla scienza e la tecnologia, dalle politiche industriali o commerciali alle consulenze militari, sino all'arte e alla cultura.
Eppure è successo, succede e succederà ancora. Nell’era di internet e dell’intelligenza artificiale si sono spalancati nuovi sconfinati orizzonti, dove paiono materializzarsi scenari degni dei romanzi distopici di Orwell e Benson, dominati da invisibili grandi fratelli e padroni del mondo. Qualunque idea, se abilmente e progressivamente incanalata nel circuito dei media e dell’opinione pubblica, può entrare a far parte del mainstream, cioè del pensiero diffuso e dominante. Comportamenti ieri inaccettabili, oggi possono essere considerati normali, domani saranno incoraggiati e dopodomani diventeranno regola, il tutto senza apparenti forzature.
Questo è quello che viene definita «la finestra di Overton».
The 6 Stages of Acceptance
Joseph Overton was an American sociologist who died young at age 43. In 2003 he crashed aboard an ultralight plane he piloted under circumstances that are not entirely clear. He gained some posthumous notoriety for his social engineering theory, called precisely «The Overton Window». In his studies he sought to explain the mechanisms of persuasion and manipulation of the masses, particularly of how an idea can be transformed from being completely unacceptable to society to being peacefully accepted and eventually legalized. Overton, simply studied the path and stages through which any idea, albeit absurd and unhealthy, can find its «window of opportunity». If you think about it, this is applicable in all instances in life, and inevitably in financial markets as well. According to Overton, this progression is marked by a precise sequence that can be summarized in 6 stages. Let’s dig in.