Post by jgaffney on Jan 11, 2011 13:07:10 GMT -5
I'm about 3/4ths of the way through the book now. It's not an easy read, despite being only 200 pages long. I keep going back to reread earlier portions, highlighting sections, and cross-referencing Alinsky's claims. Here's what you need to know:
- Alinsky says this in the dedication:
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.
- Alinsky sees the world in terms of the Haves and the Have Nots. Everyone falls into one of these two groups, usually divided up by the status of your income. His stated goal is to organize the Have Nots in order to bring about a revolution, overthrow government by the Haves, and create a new society. Does anyone see a relationship to Marxism here?
- In describing the methods a community organizer should use in order to get himself accepted by the group he intends to organize, Alinsky says:
His acceptance as an organizer depends on his success in convincing key people - and many others - first, that he is on their side, and second, that he has ideas, and knows how to fight to change things.
.......
The job of the organizer is to maneuver and bait the establishment so that it will publicly attack him as a "dangerous enemy." The word "enemy" is sufficient to put the organizer on the side of the people, to identify him with the Have Nots.
...
The organizer's job is to inseminate an invitation for himself, to agitate, introduce ideas, get people pregnant with hope and a desire for change and to identify you as the person most qualified for this purpose.