How the Overton Window and Perpetual War Keep the Nation Fragmented and Defeated from Within
“If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”
— Jesus Christ (Mark 3:25)
“All warfare is based on deception.”
— Sun Tzu
I. The Ancient Strategy: Division as a Weapon of Control
Throughout history, tyrants and empires have relied not just on armies or prisons—but on division. Internal fragmentation has always been more effective than external assault.
- Divide families with conflicting values
- Divide races and classes with envy and fear
- Divide citizens and institutions with competing loyalties
- Divide minds with propaganda, identity confusion, and moral relativism
The formula is simple:
A divided people cannot unite to resist tyranny. They exhaust themselves fighting each other while the real enemy consolidates power.
This tactic is not new—but its modern form is more sophisticated, more invisible, and more totalizing than ever before.
II. The Overton Window: How Tyrants Redefine Reality to Divide the People
The Overton Window is the range of ideas considered “acceptable” in public discourse. Tyrants manipulate this window over time, turning:
- Unity into “extremism”
- Morality into “hate”
- Patriotism into “bigotry”
- Objective truth into “violence”
The purpose is not just to change laws or policies—but to reprogram collective perception. Citizens begin to:
- Police themselves
- Cancel each other
- Silence their conscience to remain socially acceptable
As this shift accelerates, the common ground vanishes, and people become strangers and enemies in their own land—not because truth changed, but because the window moved.
III. Perpetual War: The Smokescreen of Manufactured Crisis
Tyrants have learned that constant crisis neutralizes resistance. So they manufacture abstract wars:
- War on Terror
- War on Misinformation
- War on Poverty
- War on Racism
- War on Climate
- War on Disease
- War on Hate
- War on Disobedience
These perpetual, unwinnable wars serve a dual purpose:
- Keep the population in fear, craving control over freedom.
- Justify the expansion of power under the illusion of protection.
George Orwell warned of this tactic in 1984:
“The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous.”
In a state of endless war, emergency powers never expire, and citizens become conditioned to accept surveillance, censorship, and submission as necessary “sacrifices.”
IV. A House Divided: Spiritual, Cultural, and Political Disintegration
Jesus warned that a house divided cannot stand. Yet today, we are divided across every axis imaginable:
- Male vs. Female
- Black vs. White
- Rich vs. Poor
- Left vs. Right
- Faithful vs. Faithless
- Parents vs. Children
This isn’t accidental. It’s engineered.
Tyrants hijack empathy and twist justice into tribal warfare. They train people to view their fellow citizens not as neighbors, but as enemies. While the people quarrel, the oligarchs:
- Expand debt and dependence
- Enrich corporations and bureaucracies
- Collapse the middle class
- Disarm dissenters (morally, mentally, or physically)
V. Divide and Conquer the Mind: The Final Battleground
The most dangerous battlefield is within the mind.
Modern tyrants:
- Use dopamine addiction (see Dopamine Nation) to dull critical thinking
- Weaponize media to trigger emotional tribalism
- Replace education with indoctrination (K–12 and higher ed)
- Promote victim identity over personal responsibility
A fractured mind cannot resist tyranny. It is too confused, ashamed, anxious, and distracted to see clearly—let alone stand courageously.
VI. Rebuilding the House: The Path Back to Unity and Truth
We do not need fake unity based on compliance. We need restored unity based on moral courage and shared truth.
To resist the “divide and conquer” strategy, we must:
- Anchor to objective truth (C.S. Lewis’ Tao, Stage 6 morality)
- Reclaim our true history and break free from national amnesia
- Choose character over personality (Stephen Covey)
- Embrace agency over victimhood (Dr. Paul Jenkins, mindset theory)
- Rebuild community through forgiveness, compassion, and truth in love
Final Warning: Division Leads to Dependence, Then Bondage
“Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation…” — Matthew 12:25
The tyrants know this. That’s why they:
- Erode faith
- Confuse morality
- Twist language
- Manufacture crisis
- Move the Overton Window
- And flood society with abstract wars
But those who see through the deception must speak, teach, and live the truth anyway—even at great cost.
For the sword of truth may divide…
but it also purifies, heals, and restores.
