A noble idea gone horribly awry - Saul Alinsky
We hear frequently about how Obama is one of the modern-day disciples of Saul Alinsky (H.R. Clinton being the other)
John Perazzo has written a nice profile of Mr. Alinsky at the excellent
Discover The Networks website.
Saul Alinsky
Born to Russian-Jewish parents in Chicago in 1909, Saul Alinsky was a Marxist who helped establish the dual political tactics of confrontation and infiltration that characterized the 1960s and have remained central to all subsequent revolutionary movements in the United States.
Though Alinsky is generally viewed as a member of the political left, and rightfully so, his legacy is more methodological than ideological. He identified a set of very specific rules that ordinary citizens could follow, and tactics that ordinary citizens could employ, as a means of gaining public power. His motto was, "The most effective means are whatever will achieve the desired results."
A bit more (this from an article by
Ryan Lizza):
"Alinsky was deeply influenced by the great social science insight of his times, one developed by his professors at Chicago: that the pathologies of the urban poor were not hereditary but environmental. This idea, that people could change their lives by changing their surroundings, led him to take an obscure social science phrase�'the community organization'--and turn it into, in the words of Alinsky biographer Sanford Horwitt, 'something controversial, important, even romantic.' His starting point was a near-fascination with John L. Lewis, the great labor leader and founder of the CIO. What if, Alinsky wondered, the same hardheaded tactics used by unions could be applied to the relationship between citizens and public officials?"
Environment not family and hereditary -- talk about a long walk off a short pier. Could not have been more wrong. Sure, you get an immediate initial positive result but after the "bloom" wears off and people get used to the entitlement, their welfare slides down to be much worse than it was before the "environment" was changed. This was a noble idea but it is a failed theory documented time and time again...
And another bit:
In the Alinsky model, "organizing" is a euphemism for "revolution" -- a wholesale revolution whose ultimate objective is the systematic acquisition of power by a purportedly oppressed segment of the population, and the radical transformation of America's social and economic structure. The goal is to foment enough public discontent, moral confusion, and outright chaos to spark the social upheaval that Marx, Engels, and Lenin predicted -- a revolution whose foot soldiers view the status quo as fatally flawed and wholly unworthy of salvation. Thus, the theory goes, the people will settle for nothing less than that status quo's complete collapse -- to be followed by the erection of an entirely new system upon its ruins. Toward that end, they will be apt to follow the lead of charismatic radical organizers who project an aura of confidence and vision, and who profess to clearly understand what types of societal "changes" are needed.
As Alinsky put it: "A reformation means that the 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."
Compare and contrast the revolution of 1776 with the Communist revolution or with the French. We instituted basic personal freedoms whereas the others decided that centralized control was the way to go. These people fucked over their people (100,000,000 people dead) and idiots today still think it needs to be given another chance.
Look at how the US government is handling welfare, education, economics and homeland security. And people want to expand its scope into health care?
An excellent and sobering read with 88 footnotes for you to check out and read for yourself.
Posted by DaveH at October 21, 2008 9:08 PM