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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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2009
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February
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- Obama taps Sebelius for HHS secretary
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- Under-Parented
- 1000 Year Rule - UPDATE 2
- Please Flush When You're Done
- Now, Again, Who Did You Say You Were?
- It's A New Day
- Dodged A Bullet?
- Happy Friday
- Depends On Your Definition of 'Free'
- Perhaps A Little More Preparation and Thought Woul...
- The Yang?
- What A Loser ...
- 1000 Year Rule - UPDATE
- Kenneth Responds
- What Year Is It?
- Let 'Em Die
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- Braszil!
- 1000 Year Rule
- Proof that Governments Can Stimulate and Create Jobs
- Palin to pay Alaska nearly $7,000 for kids' trips
- Andy & Glenn
- And Your Point Is?
- Walking The Walk
- Must Have
- Not Lost In Translation
- Deep Diving In My Gene Pool
- My Hero
- Sen. Lugar says US must rethink Cuba embargo
- Oh Utah
- Hail Britannia!
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- Inmate sues over alleged satanism interference
- La. recall try likely doomed, still significant
- George Mason picks drag queen as homecoming queen
- Obama backs Bush: No rights for Bagram prisoners
- This Is Not A Joke
- Just Plain Racist
- Black ministers may rethink backing Sen. Burris
- GM unit Saab files for protection from creditors
- Clinton to Obama: Talk optimistically on economy
- AP Interview: Reid pushing for climate change bill
- SC Rep: Opposition to stimulus is slap in face
- APNewsBreak: Black pastors to ask Burris to resign
- It Could Be Worse
- New Scarf? Check. Pants Only A 17 Yr Old Should We...
- Disgusting ...
- Get Your 2012 Inaugural Tix Now
- It's How You Play The Game
- Rachel gets Touched ...
- Police: Ohio man held woman captive, read Bible
- Obama plan seeks to save millions from foreclosure
- Report: FDA scaled back enforcement at labs
- W Grew A Pair?
- A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats
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- Sometimes I Hate It When He's Right
- Roland Limits Himself To Two Years
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- Aw, You Big Ape
- Something Different
- "Nobody's as smart as Rush Limbaugh"
- Shock And Awe
- A Must Read
- Climate warming gases rising faster than expected
- Sen. Burris adamantly denies misleading Ill. House
- Former President Clinton: Obama off to good start
- Rich Agreement
- Where The Stupids Are
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- Do We Even Need To Be Told this?
- I Hope This Doesn't Drive Nadya To New Heights Of ...
- Yeah but They've Got The Little Orphan Annie Decod...
- A Victory
- GT12 Gets Gov't Cash!
- The Problem With Honesty
- Happy VD
- In shift, Blackwater dumps tarnished brand name
- A Real Commander ...
- Scum
- And I'm Not Going To Pay for Any Of This?
- Kill Bill
- Kittens On Drugs
- Senate confirms Panetta as CIA chief
- More Proof That I'm Old
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- OK, You Can Go There Barry...
- "The love that dare not bark its name"
- A Victory For Science
- Best Ever?
- Quote Of The Decade
- Happy Birthday
- Blagojevich dishes dirt on those who ousted him
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