American in Spain

Overton Window

February 27, 2007

Today, during my morning headline perusal (RSS killed the newspaper), after a few clicks, I came upon this blog entry: Thank You, Richard Dawkins

I found it very interesting, and highly recommend it. That blog, which might have the best name and subtitle of any blog, often has good intellectual candy on it. Anyway, the most interesting concept that the article introduced to me was the Overton window.

Personally, I find the concept of what you can't say to be extremely interesting, and I love the visual analogy of a window that can be shifted along the spectrum of discourse. I'm just now reaching an age where I can remember when the zeitgeist was noticeably different on some issues.

That's it. I just wanted to share that blog entry and add the term "Overton window" our vocabulary. I will no doubt find a way to use it in future discourse.