September 6, 2010

A look at Obama's favorite philosopher

Interesting bit of history about Saul Alinski's past. From The New Criterion:
�Organized� crime
It is a matter of no small amusement for the journalist and agitator Nicholas von Hoffman that his beloved mentor, Saul Alinsky, learned the craft of �organizing� at the feet of Chicago�s most notorious mobsters. This was nearly eighty years before the self-proclaimed radical became a household name, having posthumously inspired an up-and-coming organizer who went on to become the forty-fourth president of the United States. Alinsky�s entr�e to the Al Capone gang (which, tellingly, he called a �public utility�) was neither his ruthlessness nor his penchant for rabble-rousing, though a surfeit of both qualities surely impressed his friend Frank (�the Enforcer�) Nitti. It was, instead, his academic credentials.

A freshly minted doctor of criminology from the University of Chicago, Alinsky sought out, bonded with, and closely studied anti-social types. His experience proved invaluable in his lifelong pursuit of �social justice,� the organizer�s panacea. Alinsky even found a Depression-era job at Joliet�s hard-knocks penitentiary, assessing the suitability of inmates for parole. Not every crook had the panache of the Enforcer, and the work soon bored Alinsky, whose promiscuous mind was easily given to boredom. Yet there was an oasis in this desert: the evaluation of an occasional con man. In an unintentionally hilarious vignette, von Hoffman relates that �one of the flim-flam men initiated Alinsky into the secrets of his trade.� We�re never told to which �his� the trade-secrets in question belonged�the flim-flammer or the organizer. It turns out not to matter. They�re both frauds.

Fraud is, in fact, the leitmotif of Radical, von Hoffman�s adoring portrait of Alinsky. This oughtn�t be taken the wrong way: Radical is an enjoyable, sometimes even an endearing, read. Von Hoffman is an engaging writer, especially during the stretches when he manages to rein in his seething disdain for �teabaggers,� �the rich,� and other Americans who actually like America. There was a self-conscious coldness about Alinsky, who urged disciples to nurture what von Hoffman describes as the �cold anger that fosters calculated and measured action.� This �Alinsky aesthetic� held social workers and other idealistic progressives in nearly as low esteem as smug capitalists. It lauded the good sense of Saint Paul (a model organizer in the agnostic Alinsky�s eyes), for leaving �the poor to Jesus while he went after people with at least a little substance.� It�s a stripe of bloodless cynicism that will ring a bell for those who�ve closely watched the first two years of Barack Obama�s presidency. Yet von Hoffman�s admiration for his subject illuminates the fire that burned within this �picador in the political corrida,� whose �irreverence was his banderilla.�
A longish read but a good one as Alinski is at the heart of today's political regime. His Rules for Radicals have been the tool-box of every progressive and enviro political campaign. What I find delightful is that these simple rules are now being employed by the Conservatives to great effect and consternation. What goes around comes around... Posted by DaveH at September 6, 2010 8:15 PM