PJM Book Club: Blogging Rules for Radicals
Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment 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.
Thus Saul Alinsky begins Rules for Radicals
And yet, the morning after the election, like someone waking from a bad dream, I took a good stretch and advised my readers to join with me in giving our new president the benefit of the doubt. Look on the bright side, I said! We could be proud of our country for electing a black man to the highest office in the land — and wouldn’t it be fun to have a young family with children in the White House?
My optimism didn’t last long. The moment Obama announced Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff, every radical and former radical in the country knew where we were headed — though few could imagine how quickly we could get there.
Then again, if you know your Alinsky and are beginning to fathom the extremism of Obama’s czarist empire, it should seem no surprise at all.
Saul Alinsky was the founding father of community organizing. And Obama’s team of Alinskyite cronies are doing what they’ve been doing for years — only now they are community organizing at a national level. This involves “empowering” the poor by crushing the middle class (though as we will see, Obama-style empowerment is an illusion). It involves obliterating traditions and symbols with which patriotic Americans identify (see Obama and iconography). It involves fomenting fear, uncertainty, and racial division. It means — because in an Alinsky world, the end justifies the means — that moral constraints like truth and honesty are off the table.
The American middle class has been way too trusting, way too slow to respond to the warning signs. And way too busy earning the money to keep their families secure while paying taxes to fund the very organizations bent on the destruction of traditional America.
But the tea parties, the Mommy Patriots, the growing number of Americans identifying themselves as conservatives, and the bucking of the two-party game to support conservative candidates rather than RINOs — these are hopeful signs. The sleeping giant may well be waking, shaking, and ready to roll.
Many are playing catch-up and may have only heard bits and pieces from Rules for Radicals. But the more we know of the philosophical underpinnings of O & Co., the better our position to expose the man behind the curtain. And the sooner we understand, the better. So let’s read and discuss — now!
Rules for Radicals
We will kick off discussion Friday on the book’s prologue, then proceed with a chapter at a time for the following three weeks — covering the nine chapters successively on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This will allow us to wrap things up before the week of Thanksgiving — allowing us to turn our full attention to our families for that important holiday, which may mean more than ever to us after hearing where Alinsky, though he died in 1972, has us headed.
For an introduction to Alinsky, please read “The Democratic Process: Saul Alinsky and His Legacy.”
TO: Barbara Curtis, et al.
RE: I’ve Got a Copy
And I was ‘turned off’ by the concept that the “Ends Justify the Means”.
So….
….what do US do in the face of rampant ‘evil’?
Regards,
Chuck(le)
P.S. Some time back, i.e., 1975, I took an oath to “….uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
What does one do when the man in the Oval Office is determined to be an ‘enemy, domestic’?
P.P.S. Hey! ALL YOU GUYS IN THE FBI AND SECRET SERVICE….
….I do believe YOUR oaths look VERY SIMILAR to mine…..
There is another book that should be on one’s reading list: Sanford Horwitt’s Let Them Call Me: Saul Alinsky-His Life And Legacy. It is indeed very important to understand the impact of the late activist’s thinking. There would be no President Obama had he not existed.
Get in their face!
Insolence, brazenness, obnoxiusness, fraudulence, intimidatin, brutality – this is also a, not that subtle, important practice of the left.
Judging by appearances it appears that Obama didn’t read The Prince by Machiavelli… Well at least not all of it.
I purchased the book a few months back. As a 61 year old Grandma, I wanted to know what makes this book so “special.” My thoughts now are: The book is poorly written, to the point of being dismal. Alinsky is just plain pedestrian in his writing. His info is legit; all any of us has to do is sit down and think about it and the same old “Alinsky” thing has been occuring time in, time out. His thoughts are simply pedestrian. He just put it into word form and then sold the idea. Alinsky comes across as arrogant and absolutely jealous of any political standing above his on. I gave the book to my very left leaning liberal husband who had no idea who Saul Alinsky was. He read the book and said it sounded like a lot of George W. Bush. Before any of you get started, I believe Bush was and will be a better President than Barry O will ever be. The book is really 6grade level reading and some of you people need to stop giving it any credit for being an eye-opener. Alinsky also comes off as a real whore-monger (sorry that was a cheap shot so forgive me… please)
If you want to know where Alinsky got most of his ideas read Gramsci.
Gramsci was a Leninist-Stalinist (not a strict Marxist or Trotskyite) who believed in transforming a society from within rather than pursuing violent revolution.
Alinksy is a vanilla retread of Gramsci.
The book can also be downloaded as a free .pdf file if you don’t mind reading from medium-res scans.
I bought this last week, and started to read it. The weird thing is that if you look really hard (and it’s tough, because of all of the nutty stuff), there are actually some good “quotes” in there that can be used by Conservatives.
I don’t have the time to do it right now, but I thought it might be interesting to “black out” all of the crazy Marxist stuff, and leave the rest in and see how it sounded. Maybe a “Rules for Republicans” could come out of it (bear in mind that I am not very far into the book yet)….
Barbara Curtis
“Saul Alinsky was the founding father of community organizing. And Obama’s team of Alinskyite cronies are doing what they’ve been doing for years — only now they are community organizing at a national level. This involves “empowering” the poor by crushing the middle class (though as we will see, Obama-style empowerment is an illusion). It involves obliterating traditions and symbols with which patriotic Americans identify (see Obama and iconography). It involves fomenting fear, uncertainty, and racial division. It means — because in an Alinsky world, the end justifies the means — that moral constraints like truth and honesty are off the table.
Obama sure can dish out the smears and attacks on America to every two bit tin horn tyrant he kowtows to when he travels overseas apologizing for America. But any kind of criticism Obama can’t take. Because Fox refuses to carry water for Obama, Fox isn’t a news organization.
Well, guess, what.
I say Obama’s not a patriotic American. In fact, he doesn’t come close. Obama disgraces the office that ACORN stole for him. But, unfortunately, for “President” Obama, unsavory, unAmerican, unconscionable, highly illegal acts come with consequences.
“The worst President in United States history deserves justice in the worst way.”
Oops. That .pdf file is only part of the book. It would help if I had taken a closer look huh? lol
Sorryyyyyyy!
I was one of the radicals for whom the book was written, though now I am a conservative mom and grateful American.
WHat a perfectly disgusting and weasely sentence. I question the truth of every part of it. Should you have been grateful for Vietnam? Just because you flit from cause to cause, unable to establish a rational method for establishing principles, doesn’t mean you should project the same weakness on others.
Rush Limbaugh long ago warned that Democrats normally cannot win election by telling the truth. They must deceive the conservative and middle-of-the-road voters. This is why you see the Obama administration lie about introducing competition into national healthcare. Saul Alinsky was master of deceit. The same is true regarding George Lakoff.
One should not ignore his book, Don’t Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate. I’m simply amazed that few people have ever heard of him. Lakoff may very well be the foremost rhetorical con jobber of today’s “progressive” movement.
I did a series on Rules for Radicals last year (linky).
In it I discovered that Alinsky had many true insights that his acolytes have forgotten; most important among them is that when the Have-Nots acquire power, they behave just as badly as the people they sought to topple. No Utopia was achieved, no real improvement, just new faces.
On the other hand, maybe they know good and well that those in power will always abuse it, and they’re eager to be the ones with all that delicious power to abuse.
Such as making the immense sacrifice of flying to Copenhagen with Oprah.
What they won’t do on our behalf!
I have read the “Reaching the Left from the Right”. I personally think that should be the obligatory reading for every parent…
If you want to know where Alinsky got most of his ideas read Gramsci. Gramsci was a Leninist-Stalinist (not a strict Marxist or Trotskyite) who believed in transforming a society from within rather than pursuing violent revolution. Alinksy is a vanilla retread of Gramsci.
So in attempting to understand Obama, we should be looking at Gramsci-Alinsky conceptualizations, and not waste our time with terms like “Marxist” or “Communist”. It would appear that the system that the States is living under right now is basically Fascism without the spaghetti and tomato sauce irredentism and nationalism.
“A passionate believer that social justice could be achieved through American democracy, Saul Alinsky methodically showed the “have-nots” how to organize their communities, target the power brokers and politically out-maneuver them. The lessons he taught people about the nature of power, imparted dignity to the poor and helped create a backyard revolution in cities across America. His work influenced the struggle for civil rights and the farm workers movement, as well as the very nature of political protest.”
Sounds like a typical patriot.
TO: All
RE: Heh
Hadn’t caught this before, but looking at it afresh….
….it figures Saul would pay ‘homage’ to Lucifer.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[The ends justify the means, only if you hate what is 'Go[o]d’. — CBPelto]
Insurrectionist drival tells how to destroy a system and not how to run a system. To paraphrase, ‘When you destroy your enemy and seize the power you will be able to. . .’
Most likely this winner will develop his own enemies and be forced to defend and be corrupted by his ‘power’. Good luck in the continuance to all of the future fuhrers however well disguised the causes.
Alinsky’s infatuation with the devil tells me all I need to know about him. Deception, misdirection, deceit and lying are his stock-in-trade, not enlightenment, love of your fellow man, nor forgiveness.
The line that separates good from evil is clearly drawn. I’ll be on the side of good.
Vivo: I am glad to see that you admit you are a believer in Alinky. Most libs try to divert their true beliefs by calling themselves “progressives”. Of course you know that the American Communist Party were the ones who chose the name “progressive” back in the late 30′s.
21. TriGeek:
I never heard of Alinsky until this article, I just made a comment on what I read about him.
This book has had very little influence on the Obama Administration. Look at this entire health care debate, and ask yourself: who has mobilized more at the grass roots? Not the side that wants nationalized health care. Alinsky was about effective grass roots organizing, which thus far Obama and DC Dems have barely used at all since getting elected.
“[W]hen the Have-Nots acquire power, they behave just as badly as the people they sought to topple.”
Unfortunately, he doesn’t teach them much about governing, building consensus or cooperation. Alinsky’s game is all zero-sum.
It sounds like Animal Farm without the humor or animals and written from Napoleon’s point of view… Does it at least have a song? I love “Beasts of England”.
12,17: Vivo and Moho: I think you are the same person, Frick and Frak.
Under communism the “have nots” are still “have nots”. There are just more of them. The legacy of community activists, such as Obama, is that they advance themselves at the expense of the people they are pretending to help. Poverty, crime, ignorance and abortions are the legacy of social activists. Oh, I forgot – so are stupid people such as yourself. You can fool most of the people some of the time and then there are people like you. Enjoy your fantasy life in Obamaland.
If you want social justice then consider “working hard, earning a buck and then keeping it to spend as you like.” That is social justice I can believe in. The rest is Pollyanna bull crap.
ast”Unfortunately, he doesn’t teach them much about governing, building consensus or cooperation. Alinsky’s game is all zero-sum.”
exactly.
Markus: Why is there no grass roots in the Obama support? Does this show he is not following Alinsky?
Not at all. When O came to our area, we saw plenty of Acorn, SEIU, AFL/CIO, etc. bussed here to join his entourage. They came to worship him, and give him numbers for photo ops. Some were true believers and some were paid community organizers.
But they failed because they did not represent the locals. And the locals here in the midwest are riled at O’s policies. The locals turned out in huge numbers, vastly outnumbering the O’s AstroTurf. Then Axelrod lied about the numbers on national media (see RfR).
Obama is trying to do what Alinsky and his followers were able to do in the cities, but America is not buying it.
It is that simple.
I read “RfR” a month or so ago. He’s a pretty good writer, and a brilliant organizer. He always seemed to know just wht to do in any situation. The plan for the “sit-in” at the concert (first, everybody eats a huge dinner of beans) is hilarious, creative, and typical Radical. At the last minute, he called it off.
He says more than a few times that you can’t use the same tactic twice – because they’ll be ready for you.
He started out with reasonable goals: get slumlords to fix up their buildings – but somewhere along the line, he decided that government was to blame.
Fortunately for us, there are few (if any) Radicals as bright as he was.
I don’t doubt for a minute that Obama’s team has all read both RfR and his other book, “Reveille for Radicals”.
“Markus: Why is there no grass roots in the Obama support?”
Don’t forget that Obama got 60% or so of the youth vote. That’s pretty grass-roots.
Obama’s use of ACORN (the money-laundering, rule-bending arm) and SEIU (the arm-bending arm) is typical of early Communist and Fascist dictatorships. So far, it’s on a smaller scale, but there’s still plenty of time.
Unless we get them voted out.