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The Overton Window One Year Later: Did Glenn Beck Predict The Occupy Movement?

by Frances Martel | 9:23 pm, December 26th, 2011

» 35 comments

Many many months ago, when Glenn Beck, one of the highest-rated cable news hosts on television, released his first work of “faction” The Overton Window, our editors promised a “100-part” review of the novel to accompany Beck’s somewhat forgotten “100-year” plan that stole the headlines in summer 2010. They were kidding, of course, but I somehow find myself continuing the tradition upon giving the novel my first read this weekend, and finding that hindsight adds a context to it that surely was not intended, but renders the work that much more significant: the protesters in the novel who Beck described as a fictionalization of the Tea Party Movement resemble what we now know as “Occupy Wall Street” in ideology and problematic behavior far more than they do the 2009 explosion of right-wing activism the Tea Party represents.

Yes, Beck himself later renounced the Occupy Movement as dangerous, violent Marxist hordes, and his book certainly does not give credence to many of the solutions for the problem proposed by Occupy. But that doesn’t mean that the novel’s characters and core message aligns with Occupy so far as America’s problems lie.

The rest of the article will contain spoilers, for those of you who are still contemplating giving the novel a whirl in 2012 (and given the dramatic change in political scenery in the past year, it’s certainly worth a go).

The core of the plot, a year later, remains clearly a work of the right-wing: Noah Gardner, a powerful PR executive, somewhat unrealistically gets tangled up in a plot to nuke Las Vegas. It is never clarified exactly why the enemy (a combination of extremist right-wing elements and FBI agents– yes, FBI agents) chooses Las Vegas, just as it is somewhat unclear why it would take someone as savvy in the political and PR world as Gardner is about 48 hours to fall in love with a hopelessly– though somewhat unintentionally– insane temp at his agency.

The novel is laden with unnecessary screeds by characters who don’t seem to notice the reader falling asleep at their surprise harangues (think an Atlas Shrugged where every character is as starved for attention as John Galt), which is classic Ayn Rand in many ways. It is not Randian in the most seminal way, however: the option of “Going Galt” and leaving society as it stands is not acceptable to any of the purely moral characters in the book. Ross, the heroine of the novel, is directly asked why she does not retreat from society into the wilderness, and her answer is a lot more Dagny Taggart than John Galt– she has work left to do in the world, still. But ultimately, the ideology of the characters fail to fit neatly into the left-right spectrum.

Beck explains in his prologue that he leaves the traditional left-right ideology of the book somewhat unclear, because he sees the struggle as one of oligarchs or elites versus the masses. In 2011, we would call that the struggle of the 99% to wrest power out of the hands of the 1%. You can see where this is going.

For one, the villain in the novel is not a multi-millionaire environmental activist or White House official– most of the action doesn’t even occur in Washington, D.C. The politicians don’t matter. Arthur Gardner, the legendary PR executive and super evil arch-villain of the novel, goes as far as to declare those in political power irrelevant, so long as they are bought by Wall Street. “The majority of politicians are only prostitutes and puppets, and they always will be. Their simple-minded lusts for money, and sex, and power make them controllable, but they disgust me,” he tells his son. After waterboarding him. Did I mention how evil this character is?

So if the action doesn’t take place in Washington, D.C., then where do The Overton Window‘s villains go about their business? Lower Manhattan, of course, which also happens to be the most comfortable places for the patriots of the novel to organize and protest. The first scene where we meet the “Finders’ Keepers,” the Tea Party group of which the heroine Ross is a member, the younger Gardner directs his cab to Chambers St., a mere few blocks from Zuccotti Park. There, he finds that several headlining ~~Tea Party~~ Founders’ Keepers leaders are speaking– the only time characters will launch into absurdly long speeches in this book with any legitimacy. The first speech, by Ross’s mother, does not highlight big government so much as separation of powers and the corrupting power of money. She tells the crowd:

“Corruption is a virus, always floating in the halls of power, ready to infect and spread among those whose immune systems are compromised by greed and blind ambition. This is the way it’s always been, and our system of government was made like it was, with a division of powers among three separate branches of government, all constrained by limited scope and common-sense principles. Our founding documents established this new form of government to protect us from the sickness that has destroyed freedom since the dawn of civilization: the inevitable rise of tyranny from the greed and gluttony of a ruling class.”

The greed and gluttony of a ruling class. Not a President who extends his executive tentacles far beyond where the Constitution permits him. Not shady internationalist groups working within the UN or other international bodies. Glenn Beck’s righteous group within his fictional storyline believe that marketing and public relations powerhouses– people who sell things and play with money for a living– are the real enemy. Ross’s mother goes on to conclude that the ultimate goal of the enemy is a “two-class society in which the elites rule and all below them are all the same: homogenized, subordinate, indebted, and powerless. That’s what corruption will do, and we’ve allowed it to run rampant for too long.”

The Tea Party was the first incarnation of a backlash against a conglomerate power that, perhaps in the waning hours of the Bush era, the American people didn’t quite understand as they did today. They saw an overreaching federal government and buckets of soft money pouring into political campaigns, but it took Citizens United, the TARP bailouts, and, perhaps, President Obama’s use of drones across the Middle East to activate the libertarian left as well as the libertarian right. In many ways, Beck’s fictionalization of the Tea Party appears familiar to the Occupy movement because Occupy is the natural evolution of a movement like the Tea Party. But there are indisputable ideological differences between the two, particularly in the emphasis each places on certain problematic troubles in this nation, and it is in there where it appears Beck had his finger on the pulse of a movement that, on his radio and television programs, he only saw vaguely as “the coming insurrection,” and not the patriotic uprising his imagination created. Neither Occupy nor Beck will likely take the comparisons too well, but it’s hard to see how the two couldn’t find some common ground by reviewing a text that preceded Occupy by a good year.

Glenn Beck, Noah Gardner, Occupy Wall Street, Overton Window, The Overton Window, Washington DC, White House

Anonymous

Fun History Fact: 14th century Ethiopian shaman were known to inhale crushed blackboard chalk to give themselves visions of the future.
Pablo

If he didn’t predict it in the Overton Window, he predicted it in January when Egypt was going off and everyone was hooting about what a nut he is. But while there are parallels between OWS and the Tea Party, the ideologies and goals of the two groups could not be any more different than say, those of the Egyptian youth who rebelled for freedom and the Islamists who have seized the moment from them and are on the verge of taking power.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C7RM2CCQUO4VVC56BAXMWCYYKQ Samsohn

nostrabeckus
Anonymous

“Beck” says: the sun will shine somewhere tomorrow. When it does the “tea” party says “wow”! With that standard of saying “problems are coming” I called it, it’s easy to win!
Anonymous

I predicted Herbert Cain was a joke candidate who would implode under the weight of his own ridiculousness but I guess you would have to be an idiot not to have seen that.
Anonymous

The only movement he predicted was the bowel one.
Pablo

You were at the front of the crowd calling Beck a lunatic, BFD. How the Muslim Brotherhood working out for you? Better than for the Copts, I hope.
Anonymous

As we both know Beck predicted A LOT MORE than Islamists coming to power in Egypt but you continuously ignore that.

Get back to me when a Caliphate has taken over Europe and Asia and then in the ensuing chaos the Muslims, the communists and the socialists battle it out to see who will be Top Dog in a New World Order that destroys the American way of life as we know it.
Anonymous

“BTW, who’s Herbert Cain”

Exactly. lolol
Pablo

“LOL at Beck making Freedom sound like a child molester.”

How’s that Muslim Brotherhood working out for you, BFD?
Pablo

“My favorite part was when he said China would control Australia. lolol”

LOL! Only a complete lunatic would think China has any such designs, amirite?

“The United States is a Pacific power, and we are here to stay,” he declared in a speech to the Australian Parliament, sending an unmistakable message to Beijing.

Obama’s bullish speech came several hours after announcing he would send military aircraft and up to 2,500 Marines to northern Australia for a training hub to help allies and protect American interests across Asia. He declared the U.S. is not afraid of China, by far the biggest and most powerful country in the region.

ROFLOMFGLOLOL! What a crackpot!
Pablo

That’s not an answer.
Anonymous

Get back to me when a Caliphate has taken over Europe and Asia and then in the ensuing chaos the Muslims, the communists and the socialists battle it out to see who will be Top Dog in a New World Order that destroys the American way of life as we know it.
Anonymous

Get back to me when a Caliphate has taken over Europe and Asia and then in the ensuing chaos the Muslims, the communists and the socialists battle it out to see who will be Top Dog in a New World Order that destroys the American way of life as we know it.
Anonymous

Get back to me when a Caliphate has taken over Europe and Asia and then in the ensuing chaos the Muslims, the communists and the socialists battle it out to see who will be Top Dog in a New World Order that destroys the American way of life as we know it.
Pablo

First, you and I both know that Beck was war-gaming a worst case scenario, and not making can’t-miss predictions. Second, you seem to be getting that scenario all wrong. You should review, and then perhaps you can tell us what he said that isn’t true.
Pablo

Ah, so now you’re the Department of Redundancy Department. I guess you’ve got to work with what you have, which, you might as well go back to bed.
Anonymous

What does this Explain the Predict for the Occupy Movement?
http://forum.aboutprosperity.ru/member.php?125035-Genesy
Anonymous

Beck predicted everything. he’s bound to get something right.. the monkey on a typewriter type situation

He is in the business of looking for a ray of misery in every situation and predict despair
Anonymous

“FOOD PRICES WILL HAVE GONE UP 1000% BY NEXT YEAR!”-Glenn beck, 2010
Anonymous

http://www.ocala.com/article/20111225/ZNYT03/112253008/-1/NEWS?Title=A-Village-in-Revolt-Could-Be-a-Harbinger-for-China
“The state press has been all but mute on why 13,000 Chinese citizens, furious over repeated rip-offs by their village elite, sent their leaders fleeing to safety and repulsed efforts by the police to retake Wukan.”
China is hardly in a position to take over anything unless it includes villages within its own borders.
Anonymous

“First, you and I both know that Beck was war-gaming a worst case scenario, and not making can’t-miss predictions. “ war-gaming a scenario? then why was it repeated ad nauseam on many of his shows?
Anonymous

“Look, everybody is talking about politics today, and we will, too, later on in the program. But first, I want to talk about something much more important. August 22nd — it is the day that Israel might be wiped off the map, leading to all-out Armageddon.
August 22nd could be the day that makes people who are the most skeptical about my World War III theory say, “Holy mother of God, what’s happening?” August 22nd could be the day that agnostics get down on one knee and start to pray, “Sweet Jesus, are you coming today?”-Glenn beck 2006
Pablo

OK. And you get back to me when companies like Solyndra are the true engine of our economic success. And when the Stimulus keeps unemployment below 8%.
Pablo

BECK: I’ve got to tell you, all this World War III stuff and apocalypse, I mean, it`s making me sound — I know it, you`re thinking I`m nuts. But just how nuts?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Are you as off your rocker as Glenn? Find out now with the handy Glenn Beck Wacko-meter where you, the viewer at home can instantly see if you measure up to the Glenn Beck gold standard of paranoia.
Question one. Do you spend most of your waking hours trying to convince others that we`re in World War III?

BECK: I know I sound like a nut job, but I really believe we`re in the early stages of World War III.

ANNOUNCER: Two, is your safe room the best decorated place in your home?

Three, are you constantly making predictions that the end of days is near?

BECK: August 22, it is the day that Israel might be wiped off the map, leading to all-out Armageddon.

ANNOUNCER: And last, do you consider tinfoil a fashion accessory?

If you answered yes to at least two of these questions, then
congratulations, you`re now officially crazy enough to host your own cable news show.
(END VIDEOTAPE)

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0608/10/gb.01.html

So, you reached for a cherry to pick and came up with a nugget of poop. Nicely done, nationman!

Comedy is hard, huh?
Pablo

Oh, hey, you know who else is cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs?

August 22: Doomsday?
Anonymous

The Tea Party has proven time and again that they are all just right wing republicans pissed off that a black guy became President. They are not new. A republican by another name is still a republican. The Media hyped it up so much, they beleived their own bullshit. Now the two factions of the republican party have a choice to make. Romney or someone else. The normal republicans (If there are any) want Romney. The Far Right Wing want someone else. However, Romney will win out because your overlords in your party have already decided who the nominee will be, and it’s Willard. Bow down to your God, Willard Mitt Romney.
Anonymous

You have nothing better to do with your time than read Beck’s subliterate crap?
http://MsUnderestimated.com MsUnderestimated

Don’t forget about Beck a LOOONG time ago telling Congress that they’d better wake up – that they were becoming irrelevant. Obama has proven THAT one right over and over.
Anonymous

Please supply your links or admit you are a CommieLibProg you CommieLibProg.
Anonymous

let’s see a random news article about internet blog speculation? and they end up quoting a conservative think tank. wow pablo, that would definitely have me convinced.
Anonymous

yeah the quote i have isn’t a part of that transcript. Nice try though.
Anonymous

Supply your links!? Supply your links to the CommieLibProg, spew! Do you clowns ever listen to yourself?
Anonymous

Get back to me when during our latest invasion of IRAQ we find Saddam’s stash of WMD.
Anonymous

Yes, buy your gold. And seeds. And computer security. And off-site document storage. And Food Insurance (really?). And…my book. LOL.

The Overton Window One Year Later: Did Glenn Beck Predict The Occupy Movement?

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