For a decade, I have presented synopses of best selling business books. But my passion is far more in the social justice arena, and for the last two years, I have spoken regularly at the Urban Engagement Book Club in Dallas, a "social justice" book club.
A lot of people on Kos seem to resonate with the life and writings of Saul Alinsky. Recently, I delivered a synopsis of his classic, Rules for Radicals. Pasted below is my handout. The first section includes direct quotes from the book, and the second section is an outline of the key contents of the book.
This will not be as good as reading the book, but it will give you a lot more than just a few quotes.
Rules for Radicals
A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals
New York: Vintage Books (A Division of Random House). 1971.
(Vintage Books Edition, 1989)
Saul Alinsky
Direct Quotes from Book
In the past the “world,” whether in its physical or intellectual terms, was much smaller, simpler, and more orderly. It inspired credibility. Today everything is so complex as to be incomprehensible… These are the days when man has his hands on the sublime while he is up to his hips in the muck of madness. (p. xv).
What the present generation wants is what all generations have always wanted – a meaning, a sense of what the world and life are – a chance to strive for some sort of order. (p. xvii).
There are no rules for revolution any more than there are rules for love or rules for happiness, but there are rules for radicals who want to change their world; there are certain central concepts of action in human politics that operate regardless of the scene or the time. To know this is basic to a pragmatic attack on the system. These rules make the difference between being a realistic radical and being a rhetorical one who uses the tired old words and slogans…
This failure of many of our younger activists to understand the art of communication has been disastrous.
Even the most elementary grasp of the fundamental idea that one communicates within the experiences of
his audience – and gives full respect to the other’s values – would have ruled out attacks on the American flag. (p. xviii).
If the real radical finds that having long hair sets up psychological barriers to communication and organization, he cuts his hair. If I were organizing in an orthodox Jewish community I would not walk in there eating a ham sandwich… My “thing,” if I want to organize, is solid communication with the people in the community. Lacking communication I am in reality silent; throughout history silence has been regarded as assent – in this case assent to the system.
As an organizer I start from where the world is, as it is, not as I would like it to be… it is necessary to begin where the world is if we are going to change it to what we think it should be. That means working in the system. (p. xix).
Dostoevski said that taking a new step is what people fear most… They must feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and chance the future. This acceptance is the reformation essential to any revolution. (p. xix).
The present generation wants to go right into the third act, skipping the first two, in which case there is no play, nothing but confrontation for confrontation’s sake – a flare-up and back to darkness. To build a powerful organization takes time. (p. xx).
A reformation means that masses of our people have reached the point of disillusionment with past ways and values. They don’t know what will work but they do know that the prevailing system is self-defeating, frustrating, and hopeless. They won’t act for change but won’t strongly oppose those who do. The time is then ripe for revolution. (p. xxii).
The democratic ideal springs from the ideas of liberty, equality, majority rule through free elections, protections of the rights of minorities, and freedom to subscribe to multiple loyalties in matters of religion, economics, and politics rather than to a total loyalty to the state. (p. xxiv).
The price of democracy is the ongoing pursuit of the common good by all of the people. (p. xxv).
The separation of the people from the routine daily functions of citizenship is heartbreak in a democracy. It is a grave situation when a people resign their citizenship or when a resident of a great city, though he may desire to take a hand, lacks the means to participate. That citizen sinks further into apathy, anonymity, and depersonalization. The result is that he comes to depend on public authority and a state of civic-sclerosis sets in… There can be no darker or more devastating tragedy than the death of man’s faith in himself and in his power to direct the future. (p. xxvi).
What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be. The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. Rules for Radicals is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away. (p. 3).
The human spirit glows from that small inner light of doubt whether we are right, while those who believe with complete certainty that they possess the right are dark inside and darken the world outside with cruelty, pain, and injustice… I will argue that man’s hopes lie in the acceptance of the great law of change; that a general understanding of the principles of change will provide clues for rational actions and as awareness of the realistic relationship between means and ends and how each determines the other. (pp. 4 & 5).
Revolution by the Have-Nots has a way of inducing a moral revelation among the Haves.
We abhor revolutions. (p. 9).
“Be not deceived. Revolutions do not go backward.” (Abraham Lincoln, May 19, 1856). (p. 10).
“The mark of a free man is that ever-gnawing inner uncertainty as to whether or not he is right.” (Justice Learned Hand). The consequence is that he is ever on the hunt for the causes of a man’s plight…
In the end he has one conviction – a belief that if people have the power to act, in the long run they will, most of the time, reach the right decisions. The alternative to this would be rule by the elite… (p. 11).
Political realists see the world as it is: an arena of power politics moved primarily by perceived immediate self-interests… (p. 12).
Tocqueville commented that self-indulgence accompanied by concern for nothing except personal materialistic welfare was the major menace to America’s future. (p. 20).
That perennial question, “does the end justify the means?’ is meaningless as it stands; the real and only question regarding the ethics of means and ends is, and always has been, “Does this particular end justify this particular means?” (p. 24).
Power is the right word just as self-interest, compromise and the other simple political words are, for they were conceived in and have become part of politics from the beginning of time. (p. 49).
The building of many mass power organizations to merge into a national popular power force cannot come without many organizers. Since organizations are created, in large part, by the organizer, we must find out what creates the organizer. (p. 63).
Among the organizers I trained and failed with, there were some who memorized the words and the related experiences and concepts. Listening to them was like listening to a tape playing back my presentations.
Clearly there was little understanding… (p. 67).
The organizer must be well organized himself so he can be comfortable in a disorganized situation, rational in a sea of irrationalities. (p. 76).
One can lack any of the qualities of an organizer – with one exception – and still be effective and successful. That exception is the art of communication. It does not matter what you know about anything if you cannot communicate to your people. In that event you are not even a failure. You’re just not there.
Communication with others takes place when they understand what you’re trying to get across to them. If they don’t understand, then you are not communicating… (p. 81).
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… (p. 99).
From the moment the organizer enters a community he lives, dreams, eats, breathes, sleeps 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.
The organizer knows that his biggest job is to give the people the feeling that they can do something…
(p. 113).
To organize a community you must understand that in a highly mobile, urbanized society the word “community” means community of interests, not physical community. (p. 120).
It is a job first of bringing hope and doing what every organizer must do with all people, all classes, places,
and times – communicate the means or tactics whereby the people can feel that they have the power to do
this and that and on. The job is to search out the leaders in these various activities (e.g., PTA, League of Women Voters, churches, clubs), identify their various issues, find areas of common agreement, and excite
their imagination with tactics that can introduce drama and adventure into the tedium of middle-class life.
(pp. 194 & 195).
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Paragraph Summary of the book:
To change the world, people have to use their power, together, to bring about the change that is needed – the change that they need. To being this about, organizers must be created, and then they must actually organize.
Outline of key content of book:
• “Stages” of revolution:
• first, you agitate
• create disenchantment and discontent – to produce, if not a passion for change, at least a passive, affirmative, non-challenging climate
• Remember: people are afraid of change!
The book:
- The Purpose
• “What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be…”
• the goal is to create mass organizations
• change
• revolution
• the players:
• the “Haves”
– (want to keep) (“when do we sleep?”)
• the “Have-Nots”
– (want to get) (“when do we eat?”)
• the “Have-a-Little, Want Mores”
--from this group have come, with few exceptions,
the great world leaders of change…
- Of Means And Ends
• “the sixth rule of ethics of means and ends is that the less important the end to be desired, the more one can afford to engage in ethical evaluations of means.”
• (“ there can be no such thing as a successful traitor, for if one succeeds he becomes a founding father.”)
• “the ninth rule of the ethics of means and ends is that any effective means is automatically judged by the opposition as being unethical.”
• “the tenth rule of the ethics of means and ends is that you do what you can with what you have and clothe it with moral arguments.”
• remember: the real question is “does this particular end justify this particular means?”
- A Word About Words
• the words… power; self-interest; compromise; ego; conflict
- The Education Of An Organizer
• the ideal elements of an organizer:
• curiosity
• irreverence
• imagination
• a sense of humor
• a bit of a blurred vision of a better world
• an organized personality
• a well-integrated political schizoid
• ego
• a free and open mind, and political relativity
• finally, the organizer is constantly creating the new out of the old
- Communication
• “I know that I have communicated with the other party when his eyes light up and he responds, ‘I know exactly what you mean…’”
• communication occurs concretely
- In The Beginning
• policy after power
• the first step in community organization is community disorganization… all change means disorganization of the old and organization of the new…
• agitation
• “no one can negotiate without the power to compel negotiation”
• power is what is needed – “Good will” without power accomplishes nothing!
• work with community of interests - not (just) physical community.
- Tactics
• “Tactics means doing what you can with what you have.”
• an analogy:
• your eyes – if you have numerical strength, show your power
• your ears – if you lack numerical strength, raise a din and clamor
• your nose – if you are truly tiny, stink up the place
• the first rule of power tactics: power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have (power comes two main sources: money and people)
• the second rule of power tactics: never go outside the experience of your people (this causes confusion, fear, and retreat…)
• the third rule of power tactics: wherever possible go outside of the experience of the enemy (cause confusion, fear, and retreat…)
• the fourth rule of power tactics: make the enemy live up to their own book of rules (they can’t do it!)
• the fifth rule of power tactics: ridicule is man’s most potent weapon
• the sixth rule of power tactics: a good tactic is one that your people enjoy
• the seventh rule of power tactics: a tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag
• the eighth rule of power tactics: keep the pressure on
• the ninth rule of power tactics: the threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself
• the thirteenth rule of power tactics: pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it
• the real action is in the enemy’s reaction
• tactics, like organization, like life, require that you move with the action
• pay attention to competition
• “Timing is to tactics what it is to everything in life – the difference between success and failure”
- The Genesis Of Tactic Proxy
• the power of/in a “mass movement”
- The Way Ahead
• organizing the white middle-class – this is where the power is…
Randy Mayeux r.mayeux@airmail.net