Rules for Radicals

[amused]

I read this somewhat late in life, and recently picked it up again. Although it is somewhat dated (1971) there are some good core ideas that are valid even today. Saul Alinsky's passion for people is evident throughout, and the fact that the far right maligns him is evidence of their own lack of humanity.

And, how could friendly rabid atheists (mostly) not like someone who opens his book with this:

"Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgement to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins - or which is which), 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." - Saul Alinsky

http://www.amazon.com/Rules-Radicals-Sa ... 635&sr=1-1



The Playboy interview:

http://www.progress.org/2003/alinsky3.htm

[Seth]

I read this somewhat late in life, and recently picked it up again. Although it is somewhat dated (1971) there are some good core ideas that are valid even today. Saul Alinsky's passion for people is evident throughout, and the fact that the far right maligns him is evidence of their own lack of humanity.

It's not a lack of humanity, it's a dislike of propaganda and indoctrination and using poor people as tools in one's ideological battle for the supremacy of collectivism without telling them what they are getting themselves into...which is dependency and eternal slavery to the Progressive machine.

The good news is that his rules can be used by anyone, regardless of their ideological bent, which is exactly what Glen Beck and others are doing to "activate" communities against socialism and progressivism. And it's working pretty damned well right now.

[amused]

http://www.industrialareasfoundation.org/

The Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) is a national community organizing network established in 1940 by Saul Alinsky. IAF provides training and consultation, furnishes organizers, and develops national strategy for its affiliated broad-based community organizations. There are currently 57 IAF affiliates functioning in 21 states, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia. It describes its chief purpose as power and its chief product as social change.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial ... Foundation

[Ronja]

Fascinating - I hope I can take the time to look more into it (sometime in March maybe... )

[Seth]

http://www.industrialareasfoundation.org/

The Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) is a national community organizing network established in 1940 by Saul Alinsky. IAF provides training and consultation, furnishes organizers, and develops national strategy for its affiliated broad-based community organizations. There are currently 57 IAF affiliates functioning in 21 states, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia. It describes its chief purpose as power and its chief product as social change.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial ... Foundation

"Social change" is a code-word for Marxism.

[apophenia]

And "bubble gum" is a code-word for "make sex like coke crazed weasels."

[Thumpalumpacus]

hahahahah, got any gum there?

[JimC]

I want a tweak to the forum software that makes it play "John Birch Society Blues" every time a Sethian post is clicked on...

[amused]

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. He is a politcal relativist. He accepts the late Justice Learned Hand’s statement that “the mark of a free man is that ever-gnawing inner uncertainty as to whether or not he is right.” The consequence is that he is ever on the hunt for the causes of man’s plight and the general propositions that help to make some sense out of man’s irrational world. He must constantly examine life, including his own, to get some idea of what it is all about, and he must challenge and test his own findings. Irreverence, essential to questioning, is a requisite. Curiosity becomes compulsive. His most frequent word is “why?”

Alinsky, Saul (2010-06-22). Rules for Radicals (pp. 10-11). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

[apophenia]

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. He is a politcal relativist. He accepts the late Justice Learned Hand’s statement that “the mark of a free man is that ever-gnawing inner uncertainty as to whether or not he is right.” The consequence is that he is ever on the hunt for the causes of man’s plight and the general propositions that help to make some sense out of man’s irrational world. He must constantly examine life, including his own, to get some idea of what it is all about, and he must challenge and test his own findings. Irreverence, essential to questioning, is a requisite. Curiosity becomes compulsive. His most frequent word is “why?”

Alinsky, Saul (2010-06-22). Rules for Radicals (pp. 10-11). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

I knew that.