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Review of Saul Alinky's
book RULES FOR RADICALS (pub 1971) |
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(2009) The following information (slightly
modified) was copied and excerpted from
a webpage on the CROSSROAD website.
Go HERE
for their original page |
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Additional Alinsky links: |
Comments
of the son of Saul Alinsky as posted in boston.com on 31 August 2008
LOCAL COPY
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From "Rules For Radicals" -- Chapter
Two: "Of Means and Ends LOCAL COPY
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Background information
from CROSSROAD
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Excerpt from:
letter by L. DAVID ALINSKY, son of Neo-Marxist Saul Alinsky |
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"Obama learned his lesson
well. I am proud to see that my father's model for organizing is being
applied successfully beyond local community organizing to affect the Democratic
campaign in 2008. It is a fine tribute to Saul Alinsky as we approach his
100th birthday." |
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Excerpts from: Hillary,
Obama and the Cult of Alinsky |
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"True
revolutionaries do not flaunt their radicalism, Alinsky taught. They cut
their hair, put on suits and infiltrate the system from within. Alinsky
viewed revolution as a slow, patient process. The trick was to penetrate
existing
institutions such as churches, unions and political parties.... Many
leftists view Hillary as a sell-out because she claims to hold moderate
views on some issues. However, Hillary is simply following Alinsky’s counsel
to do and say whatever it takes to gain power.
"One Alinsky benefactor
was Wall Street investment banker Eugene Meyer, who served as Chairman
of the Federal Reserve from 1930 to 1933. Meyer and his wife Agnes co-owned
The Washington Post. They used their newspaper to promote Alinsky....Her
series, called 'The Orderly Revolution', made Alinsky famous...
"Alinsky’s crowning achievement
was his recruitment of a young high school student named Hillary Rodham.
She met Alinsky through a radical church group. Hillary wrote an analysis
of Alinsky’s methods for her senior thesis at Wellesley College. ...
"Many leftists view Hillary
as a sell-out because she claims to hold moderate views on some issues.
However, Hillary is simply following Alinsky’s counsel to do and say whatever
it takes to gain power.
"Barack Obama is also
an Alinskyite.... Obama spent years teaching workshops on the Alinsky method.
In 1985 he began a four-year stint as a community organizer in Chicago,
working for an Alinskyite group called the Developing Communities Project....
Camouflage is key to Alinsky-style organizing. While trying to build coalitions
of black churches in Chicago, Obama caught flak for not attending church
himself. He became an instant churchgoer." [by Richard Poe, 11-27-07] See
also Community
Oriented Policing |
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Rules
for Radicals
By Saul Alinsky - 1971 |
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Opening
page - Dedication |
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“Lest
we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first
radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history... the first radical
known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively
that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer.” |
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Prologue |
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"The Revolutionary force
today has two targets, moral as well as material. Its young protagonists
are one moment reminiscent of the idealistic early Christians, yet they
also urge violence and cry, 'Burn the system down!' They have no illusions
about the system, but plenty of illusions about the way to change our world.
It is to this point that I have written this book." |
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1.
The Purpose |
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In this book we are concerned
with how to create mass organizations to seize power and give it to the
people; to realize the democratic dream of equality, justice, peace...
"Better
to die on your feet than to live on your knees.' This means revolution."
p.3
"Radicals must be resilient,
adaptable to shifting political circumstances, and sensitive enough to
the process of action and reaction to avoid being trapped by their own
tactics and forced to travel a road not of their choosing." p.6
"A Marxist begins with
his prime truth that all evils are caused by the exploitation of the proletariat
by the capitalists. From this he logically proceeds to the revolution to
end capitalism, then into the third stage of reorganization into a new
social order of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and finally the last
stage -- the political paradise of communism." p.10
"An organizer working
in and for an open society is in an ideological dilemma to begin with,
he does not have a fixed truth -- truth to him is relative and changing;everything
to him is relative and changing.... To the extent that he is free from
the shackles of dogma, he can respond to the realities of the widely different
situations...." pp.10-11
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CROSSWORD
notes on Saul Alinsky and Neo-Marxism:
Alinsky's
tactics were based, not on Stalin's revolutionary violence, but on the
Neo-Marxist strategies of Antonio
Gramsci, an Italian Communist. Relying on gradualism,
infiltration and the dialectic
process rather than a bloody revolution, Gramsci's transformational
Marxism was so subtle that few even noticed the deliberate changes.
Like
Alinsky, Mikhail
Gorbachev followed Gramsci, not Lenin. In fact, Gramsci aroused Stalins's
wrath by suggesting that Lenin's revolutionary plan wouldn't work in the
West. Instead the primary assault would be on Biblical absolutes and Christian
values, which must be crushed as a social force before the new face of
Communism could rise and flourish. Malachi Martin gave us a progress report:
"By
1985, the influence of traditional Christian philosophy in the West was
weak and negligible.... Gramsci's master strategy was now feasible. Humanly
speaking, it was no longer too tall an order to strip large majorities
of men and women in the West of those last vestiges that remained to them
of Christianity's transcendent God."
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2.
Of Means and Ends |
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[Forget moral
or ethical considerations]
"The end is what
you want, the means is how you get it. Whenever we think about social change,
the question of means and ends arises. The man of action views the issue
of means and ends in pragmatic and strategic terms. He has no other problem;
he thinks only of his actual resources and the possibilities of various
choices of action. He asks of ends only whether they are achievable
and worth the cost; of means, only whether they will work. ... The
real arena is corrupt and bloody." p.24
"The
means-and-ends moralists, constantly obsessed with the ethics of the means
used by the Have-Nots against the Haves, should search themselves as to
their real political position. In fact, they are passive — but real — allies
of the Haves…. The most unethical of all means is the non-use of any means...
The
standards of judgment must be rooted in the whys and wherefores of life
as it is lived, the world as it is, not our wished-for fantasy of the world
as it should be...." pp.25-26
"The
third rule of ethics of means and ends is that in war the end justifies
almost any means...." p.29
"The seventh rule...
is that generally success or failure is a mighty determinant of ethics...."
p.34
"The tenth rule...
is you do what you can with what you have and clothe it with moral garments....
It involves sifting the multiple factors which combine in creating the
circumstances at any given time... Who, and how many will support the action?...
If weapons are needed, then are appropriate d weapons available? Availability
of means determines whether you will be underground or above ground; whether
you will move quickly or slowly..." p.36
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CROSSWORD notes:
Apparently,
Michelle
Obama referred to these words during her Democratic National
Convention
speech:
"She said, 'Barack
stood up that day,' talking about a visit to Chicago neighborhoods, 'and
spoke words that have stayed with me ever since. He talked about 'The world
as it is' and 'The world as it should be…' And, 'All of us driven by a
simple belief that the world as it is just won't do – that we have an obligation
to, fight for the world as it should be."
Do
you wonder who -- or whose values -- should determine what "the world...
should be?"
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4.
The Education of the Organizer |
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"To
the organizer, imagination... is the dynamism that starts and sustains
him in his whole life of action as an organizer. It ignites and feeds the
force that drives him to organize for change....
"The
organizer knows that the real action is in the reaction of the opposition.
To realistically appraise and anticipate the probable reactions of the
enemy, he must be able to identify with them, too, in his imagination,
and foresee their reactions to his actions....
"The
organizers searching with a free and open mind void
of certainty, hating dogma, finds laughter not just a way to maintain
his sanity but also a key to understanding life."pp.74-75
"...the
organizer must be able to split himself into two parts -- one part in the
arena of action where he polarizes the issue to 100 to nothing, and helps
to lead his forces into conflict, while the other part knows that when
the time comes for negotiations that it really is only a 10 percent difference."
p.78
"...the
organizer is constantly creating new out of the old. He knows that all
new ideas arise from conflict; [See Dialectic
Process] that every time man as had a new idea it has been a
challenge to the sacred ideas of the past and the present and inevitably
a conflict has raged." p.79
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5.
Communication |
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[Notice the emphasis
on conflict, dialogue, relationships, etc. Team "service" is essential
to building strong relationships through "common involvements"]
"And
so the guided questioning goes on without anyone losing face or being left
out of the decision-making. Every weakness of every proposed tactic is
probed by questions.... Is this manipulation? Certainly...." p.88
"One
of the factors that changes what you can and can't communicate is relationships.
There are sensitive areas that one does not touch until there is a strong
personal relationship based on common involvements. Otherwise the
other party turns off and literally does not hear....
"Conversely,
if you have a good relationship, he is very receptive.... For example,
I have always believed that birth control and abortion are personal rights
to be exercised by the individual. If, in my early days when I organized...
neighborhood in Chicago, which was 95 per cent Roman Catholic, I had tried
to communicate this, even through the experience of the residents, whose
economic plight was aggravated by large families, that would have been
the end of my relationship with the community. That instant I would have
been stamped as an enemy of the church and all communication would have
ceased.
"Some
years later, after establishing solid relationships, I was free to talk
about anything.... By then the argument was no longer limited to such questions
as, 'How much longer do you think the Catholic Church can hang on to this
archaic notion and still survive?' ...the subject and nature of the discussion
would have been unthinkable without that solid relationship." pp.93-94 |
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6.
In the Beginning: The Process of Power |
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[Notice the compromise
needed to build the power base. Yet, since pragmatism has eroded all values,
it's simply a matter of ends justifying means. It's not unlike churches
that attract members through the world's entertainment -- then continue
to soften or hide Truth in order to keep them happy and lure more. ]
"From
the moment the organizer enters a community he lives, dreams... only one
thing and that is to build the mass power base of what he calls the army.
Until he has developed that mass power base, he confronts no major issues....
Until he has those means and power instruments, his 'tactics' are very
different from power tactics. Therefore, every move revolves around one
central point: how many recruits will this bring into the organization,
whether by means of local organizations, churches, service groups, labor
Unions, corner gangs, or as individuals."
"Change comes from power, and power comes from organization." p.113
"The
first step in community organization is community disorganization. The
disruption of the present organization is the first step toward community
organization. Present arrangements must be disorganized if they are
to be displace by new patterns.... All change means disorganization of
the old and organization of the new." p.116
"An
organizer must stir up dissatisfaction
and discontent... He must create a mechanism that can drain off the underlying
guilt for having accepted the previous situation for so long a time. Out
of this mechanism, a new community organization arises....
"The job then is getting the people to move, to act, to participate; in
short, to develop and harness the necessary power to effectively conflict
with the prevailing patterns and change them. When those prominent in the
status quo turn and label you an 'agitator' they are completely correct,
for that is, in one word, your function—to agitate to the point of conflict."
p.117
"Process
tells us how. Purpose tells us why. But in reality, it is academic
to draw a line between them, they are part of a continuum.... Process is
really purpose." p.122 |
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7.
Tactics |
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"Tactics
are those conscious deliberate acts by which human beings live with each
other and deal with the world around them. ... Here our concern is with
the tactic of taking; how the Have-Nots can take power away from the Haves."
p.126
Always
remember the first rule of power tactics (pps.127-134):
1.
"Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have."
2.
"Never go outside the expertise of your people. When an action or tactic
is outside the experience of the people, the result is confusion, fear
and retreat.... [and] the collapse of communication.
3.
"Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy. Look for ways
to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty. (This happens all the
time. Watch how many organizations under attack are blind-sided by seemingly
irrelevant arguments that they are then forced to address.)
4.
"Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules. You can kill them with
this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church
can live up to Christianity."
5.
"Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counteract
ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your
advantage."
6.
"A good tactic is one your people enjoy."
7.
"A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag. Man can sustain militant
interest in any issue for only a limited time...."
8.
"Keep the pressure on, with different tactics and actions, and utilize
all events of the period for your purpose."
9.
"The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself."
10.
"The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will
maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. It is this unceasing
pressure that results in the reactions from the opposition that are essential
for the success of the campaign."
11.
"If you push a negative hard and deep enough, it will break through into
its counterside... every positive has its negative."
12.
"The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative."
13.
Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. In conflict
tactics there are certain rules that [should be regarded] as universalities.
One is that the opposition must be singled out as the target and 'frozen.'...
"...any
target can always say, 'Why do you center on me when there are others to
blame as well?' When you 'freeze the target,' you disregard these [rational
but distracting] arguments.... Then, as you zero in and freeze your target
and carry out your attack, all the 'others' come out of the woodwork very
soon. They become visible by their support of the target...
"One
acts decisively only in the conviction that all the angels are on one side
and all the devils on the other." (pps.127-134)
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Notes from an article
by Phyllis Schalfly titled "Alinski's
Rules: Must Reading In Obama Era," posted at www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=318470857908277
(2-2-09)
"Alinsky's second chapter, called Of Means and Ends, craftily poses many
difficult moral dilemmas, and his 'tenth rule of the ethics of means and
ends' is: 'you do what you can with what you have and clothe it with moral
arguments.' He doesn't ignore traditional moral standards or dismiss
them as unnecessary. He is much more devious; he teaches his followers
that 'Moral rationalization is indispensable at all times of action whether
to justify the selection or the use of ends or means.'...
"The qualities Alinsky looked for in a good organizer were:
ego ("reaching for the
highest level for which man can reach — to create, to be a 'great creator,'
to play God"), curiosity (raising "questions that agitate, that break through
the accepted pattern"),
irreverence ("nothing
is sacred"; the organizer "detests dogma, defies any finite definition
of morality"),
imagination ("the fuel
for the force that keeps an organizer organizing"),
a sense of humor ("the
most potent weapons known to mankind are satire and ridicule"), and an
organized personality
with confidence in presenting the right reason for his actions only "as
a moral rationalization after the right end has been achieved.'...
"'The organizer's first job
is to create the issues or problems,' and 'organizations must be based
on many issues.' The organizer 'must first rub raw the resentments of the
people of the community; fan the latent hostilities of many of the people
to the point of overt expression. He must search out controversy and issues,
rather than avoid them, for unless there is controversy people are not
concerned enough to act. . . . An organizer must stir
up dissatisfaction and discontent.'" |
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