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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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2008
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April
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- I Did Not Have Pastoral Relations With That Man
- Now The Veepstakes Is Over!
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- Bitter? Hell Yeah
- Full Opening
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- Even A Blind Squirrel?
- Of Course!
- Hitchens Poison Point: Proven!
- Keep Hope Alive
- Badly Injured Man Not Done Partying YetBATON ROUGE...
- No title
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- Feel Good News
- There's No Reasoning With The Man
- Off TheTop Of His Head
- 1000 Words
- Losing Bigger With Each Victory
- What We Want To Change
- Looking Forward
- Thanks To Salon!
- Moving To Britain?
- Nationally
- And Here It Comes ...
- How She Can Win
- Our Spin: Not As Bad As Ohio
- Homie Is Done Wit U
- Did Too! Did Too! Did Too!
- I Guess HRC Has A Ways To Go
- Fleas
- Oh Bill, Bill, Bill
- Clintonesque = Reaganesque ... X2
- 6 vs 8
- Note To Self: Start Operation "Get To Know A Rock ...
- Straight
- When One Is Busy, One Steals
- Back Where It Belongs
- What, A Senate Seat And $100,000,000 Wasn't Enough?
- And Again
- Test Again
- New Toy
- Making The Dog Whistle Audible
- Not A Bushel and A Peck?
- Born To ... Lose?
- Drip Drip
- Another Clinton Cabinet-er Goes 'O'
- The Euro Press Cracks
- Danny's Last Song
- Hillary, John and Barry
- I Am Also Hearing That The Sun Rises In The East
- Yahoo!
- Danny Federici 1950 - 2008
- Protecting Family Values Takes Vigilance
- Amen!
- Familiarity Breeds ... ?
- Because GT12 Is Just Sick Of Him ...
- Push Back
- Brooooooooooooooooooooooce!
- When Clintonites Take Their Cues From FoxPerts
- This Might Be Good In The Studio
- It's A Beautiful Day
- You Decide
- Liar!
- Vitamins 'may shorten your life'
- Now, Shut UP About It
- Gay Guy's Gay Thing Well AttendedROCHESTER, NY—Acc...
- This Hasn't Helped In The Past
- 4/15/08
- Just Because
- Rockers Need Tax Advice Too
- Why We Pay Tax
- Bigger and Bitter
- More Balls Stuff
- Puke Inducement Of The Day
- Some Things Should Not Be News
- Why We Are Taxed
- God Bless Him!
- Balls Beats Bitter
- Yes We Can
- A Fucking Tempest In A Teapot
- Yes We Are!
- Hope
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- Too Bitter
- Something To Be Hopeful About
- Something To Be Bitter About
- Bitter?
- Mick and Keith Have At least 12 More Years
- If It's Any Consolation, I Am Going To Shoot Mysel...
- GT12 Historical Document
- I Am A Patriot
- How We Get The President To Torture
- Iron Man
- Where We Are At Today
- Bush Says We Torture And That's OK
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- Yeah, What He Said
- Area Man Makes It Through DaySCHAUMBURG, IL—Besieg...
- Double Standard
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April
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