AFTERWORD
“Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.”
– ANDRE GIDE
There’s a very good reason we called this book The Overton Window, and it’s not just because it’s one of the techniques that Arthur Gardner uses to push his objectives. We chose this title because it’s also a technique that, to one extent or another, we just used on you. (The key difference is, I’m openly telling you that’s what I’m doing; I don’t have a hidden agenda here.) In the course of reading and thinking about this story, it’s simply my hope that you’ve spent a little bit of time entertaining ideas that you might not have considered before.
Remember, the Overton Window concept is that only the few scenarios that currently sit inside an established window of acceptable debate will be taken seriously by the public. To move the Window toward their ultimate goal, those pushing an agenda have to introduce radical ideas that fall outside of the current comfort zone. While those fringe ideas will normally be dismissed, the Window will also be subtly nudged in their direction. This allows ideas that would’ve previously seemed unthinkable to be introduced and, eventually, even seriously considered as solutions.
Applying this concept to our story, it should be obvious that we set out to create a plot based in reality, and then we pushed it to an absolute extreme. It’s one of the intriguing potentials of this sort of fiction: When your mind suspends disbelief, it may also become more willing to consider a broader spectrum of possible outcomes to the events and agendas that are playing out around us every day.
For example, fighter pilots often use flight simulators to train for real combat. In a safe environment, these simulators force pilots to consider a confluence of events that would otherwise seem ridiculous, like dual engine failure while being shot at and simultaneously having to land on an aircraft carrier in thirty-foot seas. It’s extreme, but it works. Many pilots who’ve been through a hair-raising mission in a live war zone come out saying that it wasn’t nearly as bad as what they’d faced in the simulator.
This book is your simulator. It’s unlikely that we’ll face anything close to the challenges that Noah and Molly are up against. But, after experiencing their scenario in its fictional setting, maybe it will become a little easier to have deeper conversations about the important forces that are actually at work in the real world.
As I told you at the outset, while I certainly used a lot of dramatic license, this story is loaded with truth. But facts can easily be manipulated, and that’s why we are including this section. I want you to decide for yourself exactly what is fact, what is based on fact, what is a common belief possibly based on a distorted fact, and what is complete fiction. Don’t stop at my sources; find your own. That way, you can determine where your own Overton Window should be located as we continue to debate what kind of America we want to live in.
And remember, this list is only a starting point. If a passage or a statement in the book intrigued you but isn’t specifically mentioned here, take a minute and type some key words into your favorite search engine. (Try “KFC UN Security” from Chapter 17, for example…) You might be surprised at where your search will lead you.
– gb
In the Prologue, Eli Churchill mentions to Molly’s mother (did you pick up on whom he was speaking to?) that, in the late summer of 2001, Donald Rumsfeld announced that the U.S. government could not account for $2.3 trillion dollars. That actually happened. The date was September 10, 2001. A day later, some missing money (even trillions of it) didn’t seem quite so important anymore.
Rumsfeld announces $2.3 trillion unaccounted for on September 10, 2001: “Defense Department Cannot Account For 25% Of Funds- $2.3 Trillion,” CBS News, January 29, 2002, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml
See also: A video of the CBS News segment, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kpWqdPMjmo
A small side note: As you read this scene, if you were wondering what a phone booth was doing out in the desert in the middle of nowhere, this is an interesting location that actually existed until fairly recently. Google “Mojave phone booth” to learn more.
In Chapter 3 we are presented with a government memo outlining the “Growing Threat of Domestic Terrorism.” This memo was, of course, was modeled after the real-life memo issued by the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) that caused an uproar because of its over-generalizations on who might be a dangerous militia member.
Government Memo: “The Modern Militia Movement,” Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC), issued in February 2009: http://www.scribd.com/doc/13290698/The-Modern-Militia-Movement-Missouri-MIAC-Strategic- Report-20Feb09-
Inside our fictional memo is a reference to a government program called “REX-84.” According to published reports at the time, this program involved emergency actions that would be implemented in the event of a national crisis. In 1986, the Associated Press reported on a FEMA directive that described a REX-84 exercise preparing for the detention of more than 400,000 Central American refugees in ten military detention centers located across the country.
A Miami Herald story from 1987 again addressed REX-84, this time reporting that Oliver North had worked closely with FEMA to develop a contingency plan should America face a major crisis, like nuclear war or insurrection. That plan called for actions such as the “suspension of the Constitution, turning control of the United States over to FEMA, appointment of military commanders to run state and local governments and declaration of martial law.”
In a “heavily censored FEMA memorandum” that was obtained by The Herald, the REX-84 exercise was described as calling for the “activation of ‘emergency legislation, assumption of emergency powers… etc.’ “A source familiar with the exercises said North was aware of the simulations and collaborated with FEMA and the Pentagon in producing them. While the simulations were in progress, the Pentagon staged the first of several annual large- scale military exercises in Honduras, deploying thousands of troops near contra supply bases.
“A Pentagon spokeswoman, Capt. Nancy LaLuntas, declined to discuss contingency plans or details of the FEMA-Pentagon exercises, citing ‘security reasons.’ Yet she confirmed that the exercises, code-named Rex 84 Alpha and Night Train 84, took place April 5-13, 1984. FEMA spokesman Bill McAda also confirmed the simulations and, like LaLuntas, declined to give details.”
These days, REX-84 is part of the everyday language of conspiracy theorists, and for good reason: There is not a shred of evidence to suggest that any of these exercises resulted in anything other than embarrassment for the government. On the other hand, given our government’s reaction to catastrophe in the past (i.e., the forced internment of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans in 1942), it doesn’t take a conspiracy theorist to understand that all of us need to be vigilant and ensure that the only document we look toward in the next crisis is the Constitution.
REX-84:
Associated Press, “Administration Denies Existence of Detention Camps for Illegal Aliens,” December 16, 1986, http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ueAlAAAAIBAJ &sjid=UPwFAAAAIBAJ &d q=rex-84 &pg=6740%2C4955414
See also: Alfonso Chardy, “Reagan Advisers Ran ‘Secret’ Government” Miami Herald, July 5, 1987.
See also: Alfonso Chardy, “North Helped Revise Wartime Plans” Miami Herald, July 19, 1987.
To illustrate how public perception and behavior can be shaped over time, we used the story of bottled water, a product which seemed to come upon us out of nowhere to become a huge industry that’s nearly ubiquitous. How did it happen? Read Bottlemania for a great primer.
