The Overtones

The Overton Window is a hypothesis describing the relationship between common public opinion and the chances of success of any new political policies.

See image below.

By way of example, in 1970 the culling of the greyhound industry because greyhounds were being culled in the interest of pace would have fallen into the unthinkable bracket.

However in 2016 it falls somewhere between the sensible and acceptable bracket.

However, there is something that Overton missed. These brackets represent the median of public opinion.

Also important is the spread around the median. The larger this is, the more careful politicians should be in proposing changes.

The power of motivated vocal minorities has been supercharged with the internet, after all.

So I’d like propose an addition to the Overton Window based on 6 Sigma thinking.

If 0.3% of the population or less of the population lie outside the 6 Sigma distribution in regards to an issue then you’re dealing with a standard Gaussian distribution of opinions on a subject; so knock yourself out and propose the changes to policy that all the fuckwits think they want.

However if polling suggests that more than 0.3% of the population are out past the 6 Sigma lines then do nothing apart from sounding very concerned, proposing the odd committee to look into the issue, and blame the opposition for opposing any changes.