When Jack and Murray visit the "most photographed barn in America", Murray has the revelation that nobody has actually seen the barn.  They have been exposed to the propaganda and have become part of the mob mentality surrounding the barn. This is  the underlying topic of the novel.  Every other story Jack narrates within this novel related to this concept.  Mass propaganda is a distraction of reality used like smoke and mirrors in the illusionist tricks to obfuscate what is really going on.