Rules For Radicals

Saul D. Alinsky is a name you should become familiar with. Alinsky was a radical who helped develop the concept of Community Organizing as a way to develop and maintain political power for radical purposes. For a good definition of what Community Organizing is, click the following, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_organizing

Regardless of your political persuasion, it is instructive to note that President Barack Obama also employed Community Organizing to enable his rise as a politician and gain power. By many accounts, Obama was, and is, a follower of Alinsky, but you should draw your own conclusions, especially after studying the following 13 rules for radicals. These rules are from Alinsky's 1971 published book, "Rules for Radicals."

 

Here are the 13 Rules Alinsky instructs would be radicals to follow to be successful as a radical. These rules will allow the radical to gain mastery over opponents regardless of what the political goal is. I draw your attention to rule number 5 and how it is being used today to prevent a civil discussion of political issues not in the radical's interest. 

 

The rules

 

 1. Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.

 2.  Never go outside the expertise of your people.

 3. Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.

 4. Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.

 5. Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.

 6. A good tactic is one your people enjoy.

 7. A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.

 8. Keep the pressure on. Never let up.

 9. The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.

 10. The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.

 11. If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.

 12.The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.

 13. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.