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Alinsky's Rules For Radicals
Rule 1: Power is not only what you have, but what an opponent thinks you have. If your organization is small, hide your numbers in the dark and raise a din that will make everyone think you have many more people than you do.
Rule 2: Never go outside the experience of your people. The result is confusion, fear, and retreat.
Rule 3: Whenever possible, go outside the experience of an opponent. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat.
Rule 4: Make opponents live up to their own book of rules. “You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.”
Rule 5: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It’s hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.
Rule 6: A good tactic is one your people enjoy. “If your people aren’t having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic.”
Rule 7: A tactic that drags on for too long becomes a drag. Commitment may become ritualistic as people turn to other issues.
Rule 8: Keep the pressure on. Use different tactics and actions and use all events of the period for your purpose. “The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. It is this that will cause the opposition to react to your advantage.”
Rule 9: The threat is more terrifying than the thing itself. When Alinsky leaked word that large numbers of poor people were going to tie up the washrooms of O’Hare Airport, Chicago city authorities quickly agreed to act on a longstanding commitment to a ghetto organization. They imagined the mayhem as thousands of passengers poured off airplanes to discover every washroom occupied. Then they imagined the international embarrassment and the damage to the city’s reputation.
Rule 10: The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. Avoid being trapped by an opponent or an interviewer who says, “Okay, what would you do?”
Rule 11: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don’t try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame.
Rule 2: Never go outside the experience of your people. The result is confusion, fear, and retreat.
Rule 3: Whenever possible, go outside the experience of an opponent. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat.
Rule 4: Make opponents live up to their own book of rules. “You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.”
Rule 5: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It’s hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.
Rule 6: A good tactic is one your people enjoy. “If your people aren’t having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic.”
Rule 7: A tactic that drags on for too long becomes a drag. Commitment may become ritualistic as people turn to other issues.
Rule 8: Keep the pressure on. Use different tactics and actions and use all events of the period for your purpose. “The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. It is this that will cause the opposition to react to your advantage.”
Rule 9: The threat is more terrifying than the thing itself. When Alinsky leaked word that large numbers of poor people were going to tie up the washrooms of O’Hare Airport, Chicago city authorities quickly agreed to act on a longstanding commitment to a ghetto organization. They imagined the mayhem as thousands of passengers poured off airplanes to discover every washroom occupied. Then they imagined the international embarrassment and the damage to the city’s reputation.
Rule 10: The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. Avoid being trapped by an opponent or an interviewer who says, “Okay, what would you do?”
Rule 11: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don’t try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame.
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2006
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November
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- Run, Barack, Run!
- Jews Lead!
- Honey, 1992 - 2006
- But, Who Will Defend Marriage?
- More Bad For The Theocracy Movement
- Catholicism Celebrates Irrelevance
- Tidings of Comfort and Joy
- It's Official!
- The Kids Respond
- Next In Line: Our Own Civil War
- Trust, But Verify
- Jesus Not Welcome
- Courage? Change? New Drapes.
- The Tipping Point
- Anita O'Day 1919 - 2006
- 61/100
- No title
- G Pride.
- Say No More
- More Science
- Remembering Galileo
- Robert Altman 1925 - 2006
- You Know He's Right
- Everybody Talks About It, But Nobody Does Anything
- Michael Moore's Peace Proposal
- Amen
- Torture Confirmed
- Our Work Is Not Done
- The Sigh
- Memories
- Kid Power
- We'll Believe It When We See It
- Ruth Brown 1928 -2006
- Why They Lost
- Truth Out!
- Science Schmience
- See? Research!
- Mr Unity
- The Circle Of Life
- Trent Appeal
- Is It Too Early For This?
- And Baby It Hurts! Pt 1
- Part 2
- The Greatest Video
- Str8 2 HL
- Now That That's Over
- Well, Yeah
- Look West!
- Test
- Ed Bradley 1941 -2006
- Not So Fast, Georgie
- This Would Be A Problem For The Dems
- It's Sooo Hard To Act Butch
- Gay Is Gonna Gitcha Everytime
- We Ain't Ready For Reform
- Abra Cadabra
- 51
- 51
- Homo Phobia?
- MO 2000 in miniature
- Quote of the Day
- Solid South? Forget em...
- Rock The Vote
- Tester Claims Victory
- Well, That Was Quick
- MT VA Update
- More Great (or at least good) News
- Equal Time
- Poetic Justice Award
- Bring 2008 On.
- Payback's A Bitch
- Pushback
- A Failure Of Bi-Partisanship
- 2008 Looks Great
- History Made
- Paybacks A Bitch
- Paybacks A Bitch
- What Do I Know
- One Only
- Ney Means No
- Criminals and Mistress Abusers Down
- 231
- The Tight Three
- The Onion Reports
- Big Pharma Down!
- Sweeping Up IN
- As Long As They Keep To Themselves ....
- Dn in IN
- Safe!
- A Bitterweet Victory
- Twofer!
- First IN Incumbent Rep Falls
- Sopranos Whack Jr.
- The Era Of Man-on-Dog Ends
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