Saul Alinsky

Saul Alinsky (30 January 1909–12 June 1972) is Satan incarnate was a 20th century activist who campaigned for the poor in Chicago and elsewhere in the US. He was born to poor Jewish immigrants and raised in the Jewish faith; as an adult he considered himself and agnostic,[1]:108-109 but always answered that his religion was Judaism.[2] He is most famous for his final book, Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals (1971). He explained that he wrote the book because Machiavelli had written The Prince for the Haves, but nobody had written an equivalent book for the Have Nots. As you can probably deduce from the book's title and the reason it was written, Alinsky is one of the right-wing's gold-level liberal boogeymen. Notably centrist, non-radical Democrat Hillary Clinton was formerly an admirer, writing her senior thesis on his ideas, which led a lot of right-wingers to hate both of them even more when they found out the connection.[3]

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Ideas

Rules for Radicals sets out rules for organizing and campaigning, while leaving it open exactly what to organize and campaign for - he believed in letting communities decide that. His rules pay attention to the importance of appearances and optics, like "Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have", "The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself", and "Ridicule is man's most potent weapon". He argues for constant pressure, while being flexible in how that is applied, recognizing that groups need to change their tactics if individual attacks fail to land or counter-attacks strike home. He also emphasized the importance of making campaigning something that's not too much of a grind and people actually want to be involved in, something others often miss: "A good tactic is one your people enjoy."[4]

Right-wing influence

However, writers ranging from Brooke Obie at Politico.com[5] to film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times[6] have noticed that far-right activists -- notably, leaders of the Tea Party movement -- often use Alinsky's methods to drum up support. For fundies and other wingnuts who would rather cut off their hands[7] than touch anything directly associated with Alinsky, there is a conservative rip-off version with a lookalike cover.[8] In short his writings seem to work as a good way of organizing a political movement of any stripe.

gollark: Allegedly.
gollark: Imagine consuming drugs such as caffeine.
gollark: ?urban apioform
gollark: How? The end is quite pleasant. Nice sky. I've lived there a few times.
gollark: However, this would not learning.

References
  1. Radical: A Portrait of Saul Alinsky by Nicholas von Hoffman (2011) Nation Books. ISBN 1568586779.
  2. Playboy Interview with Saul Alinsky: A Candid Conversation with the Feisty Radical Organizer (March 1972) Playboy reprinted in New English Review.
  3. Ben Carson Said Saul Alinsky Was Hillary Clinton's Hero. Who Was He?, Time, July 20, 2016
  4. See the Wikipedia article on Rules for Radicals.
  5. Brooke Obie (February 1, 2010). "The right-wing media hates Alinsky, except when he's shaping their movement", Brooke Obie, Mdia Matters, February 1, 2010
  6. Roger Ebert. "Saul Alinsky comes to the Tea Party", Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times
  7. As ordered by Jesus in Matthew 5:30 and its redundant repeat, Matthew 18:8.
  8. Rules for Conservative Radicals at Amazon.com
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