A few years back, a couple of my lukewarm fans mentioned The Overton Window is the reason why the TDG cannot move forward.
I never heard of The Overton Window before, so I went to Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window
The wiki article definition: The Overton Window is the range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time.
The wiki article describes how most social and political movements have to go through six stages from inception to implementation:
1. Unthinkable
2. Radical
3. Acceptable
4. Sensible
5. Popular
6. Policy
In the first two stages, it is hard to generate public discourse on the movement, regardless on its quality of rightful thinking. Years are required. For example, I have been working on my alternative democracy since 1997. I’m still an echo chamber of one.
When a movement gets to Step 3 (acceptance), it is now acceptable for entities outside of the founder(s) to talk about it. It is this step when the movement is in The Overton Window. It now stands a chance of implementation.
However, more years may be required to move from Step 3 to Step 6. The 17th Amendment is a good example. The early United States had a problem with some senators. A few too many senators treated their tenure in Washington as a six-year paid vacation. A few others were openly corrupt. The robber barons of the railroad days brought the senators’ behavior to public attention. Thirty years later, senators were directly elected by the people, not appointed by the state legislators. Thirty years to make this change!
In a similar vein, the Canadian Senate also took about 30 years to reform. Since 1867, the Canadian Senate was mostly a paid retirement home for partisan hacks. Attention was brought to this corruption around 1975. Thirty years later, the Senate became more about credible people actually working on legislation. While the Canadian Senate is still a somewhat unfair system (American political junkies would be aghast to learn of the details), it is no longer a contentious issue with the Canadian public.
Where is the TDG in the Overton Window?
In case you are not one of my few lukewarm fans, I am an inventor of a new kind of democracy. I have called it “Tiered Democratic Governance (TDG).”
One of the main features of the TDG is that it has no political parties. If you are a political scientist, you would have stopped reading 11 words ago. It is impossible to govern without political parties; isn’t that right?
I would mention that western democracies seem to be falling apart, and the political scientists don’t seem to have any answer for the turmoil we are going through, other than to continue through the status quo, which has become worse than the status quo of the previous decade. But I won’t mention that the political scientists have no real answer, will I?
Besides, I offended no political scientists because they stopped reading 94 words ago.
But I digressed. As I alluded earlier, the TDG is at Step 1 — “Unthinkable” — on the Overton list. It really does not have any true supporters other than me. Even my lukewarm TDG fans really cannot talk about it. Maybe they are waiting for a celebrity to endorse it; I don’t know.
Because I have been working on this project for 27 years with no Overton advancement, it seems unlikely the TDG will move from Unthinkable to Radical on my efforts alone.
Dave’s dust on the shelf
While I have been working on the TDG project since 1997, my efforts have not been consistent. I have put the TDG away for years at a time. Then I bring it back, somehow believing new writing and new marketing will make a difference. I try these new things out, find they don’t work, then the project goes back on my shelf.
The list below depicts my active TDG timeline:
1997–2001: Wrote and self-published the first TDG book. I thought it was a brilliant work at the time, but I have acquired more writing skills since then.
2004–2005: Wrote second version as an academic work. Another piece of unfinished evolution. I did not try to publish.
2008–2011: I abandoned the academic approach when I wrote the third version. Better written, better strung together. I made it a free read from the new website. I placed lots of Google ads in the USA internet. I spent so much money on advertising, Google sent me some swag.
Author’s Own Photo
2017-present: “The Trump presidency should generate some interest in a new democracy,” so I thought. The new developments were e-books, videos, another new website, three TDG novels, and Medium.
By early 2022, I completed several objectives for development and marketing of the fourth incantation of the TDG. Because my new work did not bear fruit, it was a logical time to put the TDG back on the shelf.
But I had incurred some life changes
My physical stamina decreased a lot (I am now a senior citizen, yikes!). It would be difficult for me to hold on to a regular job.
I have a certain family situation that needs attending to. If I take on a job, the family has to go away. I can’t do both.
I have secured a source of funding to keep me in a minimalist lifestyle. My rent is paid; there’s healthy food in the cupboard; I can keep my old car going. But not much time in restaurants or vacations. Not much donating to good causes. I can attend to my family.
But with no job, I have time and energy to give the TDG more effort than it probably deserves. So I work on this project a few hours a day, with great naps between works sessions. And I determine when and how long I “work.” Let’s just say that I’m occupied creatively with my low-budget retirement.
Did the universe shape itself so that I would continue to work on the TDG even though practicality demands for it to be put back on the shelf?
Hard to say. Maybe my cosmic purpose is to continue to move the TDG from Step 1 to Step 2 of the Overton Window. That wouldn’t be happening if I have a job and the TDG is on the shelf.
But a part of me wants a few hundred dollars of extra monthly income. If I find an agreeable part-time job, I will take it. If so, the TDG will likely end up on the shelf again.
And if the TDG is on the shelf, I will continue to spend the $150 a year to keep the TDG on the interweb. So you can still find the TDG if I retire from the TDG. But no more Medium articles.
I’ve done what I can. If I am still on Medium, it is because I have nothing better to do.
The Overton Window is mostly in your hands.
Published on Medium 2024
