Saul Alinsky’s Rules For Radicals
- “Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.” Power is derived from two main sources – money and people. (“Have-nots” must build power from flesh and blood, both in plentiful supply. Government & corporations always have a difficult time appealing to people, and usually do so almost exclusively with economic arguments.)
- “Never go outside the expertise of our people.” It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone. (Organizations under attack wonder why radicals don’t address the “real” issues. This is why. The (radical organizers) avoid things with which they (those being organized) have no knowledge.
- “Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.” Look for ways to increase anxiety, insecurity & uncertainty. (Watch how many organizations under attack are blind-sided by seemingly irrelevant arguments that they are then forced to address.)
- “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.” If the rule is that every letter gets a reply, send 30,000 letters. You can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their rules. This is a dangerous rule and one activists can continually use to chip away at an organization.
- “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational and infuriating, works as a key pressure point to force enemy into concessions.
- “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.” They’ll keep doing it without urging and come back to do more.
- “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.” (Even radicals get bored, so to keep them excited & involved, organizers are constantly coming up with new tactics.
- “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.” Keep the opposition off balance. As they master one approach, hit them from the flank with something new. Never give them a chance to rest, regroup, recover, etc.
- “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.” (Perception is reality. The opposition will spend enormous resources collectively imaging the worst possibility. The possibilities can easily poison the mind and result in demoralization.)
- “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.” Violence from the other side can win the public to your side because the public always loves an underdog. Unions used this tactic to great effect.
- “The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.” Activist organizations have an agenda, and their strategy is to hold a place at the table. They will always have a compromise solution.
- “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions, people hurt faster than institutions. Direct personalized criticism and ridicule work.
Summarized from an online commentary by Craig Miyamoto
www.geocities.com/WallStreet/8295/alinsky.htm?200914
Kudos for having the insight and courage to highlite Marxism and Saul Alinsky’s “Rules For Radicals”. The tragic American mistake, President Obama, is a dedicated follower of these discredited philosophys and will be a failure.
The critical question is, will the American people follow him and his followers to destruction or cast him and his followers aside and make a momentous historical point that the individual in a free society of Constitutional law, is more powerful than a group lead by a misguided idealogue.
Thus far they have destroyed the Democratic Party and are well on their way to neutering the Legislative branch of government. They have seriously corrupted the Judicial branch.
It amazes me that so few media talking heads cannot bring themselves to call Obama what he is, a Marxist, subversive, anti-capitalist, anti-American, anti-Constitution, anti-Declaration of Independance, ignorant, fool. Oh, I forgot, in addtion, a lying, narcissist.
Thank God for Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck ( and Roger Ailes/Rupert Murdoch team)!