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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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March
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- A Good Start
- Gotta Listen To The Two-Termers
- Sebelius to call for action now on health care
- Obama tells allies that public supports his agenda
- Whadda I Care?
- Smokers face a hit as tobacco taxes spike
- Geithner: Risk is government does too little
- Clinton: Diplomacy plays key role in Afghanistan
- FAIL 2.0, Pt. 2
- Europe Takes The Lead
- Analysis: New war strategy requires outside help
- Groups find common ground on health care overhaul
- Toldja So
- Oh Nos!
- Not Smarter Than 5th Graders
- Tee Vee Watch
- Maybe Now's The Time To Bow Out 'For The Good Of T...
- Referred By Mr G Baker
- How They Dood It
- FAIL 2.0
- Keep An Eye Out
- The Rep's Plan
- Purple AIG
- Phil Spector murder retrial in hands of LA jury
- Top Irish republican charged with killing soldiers
- Consumer spending up for 2nd straight month
- Key Senate panel backs Obama's budget blueprint
- THE INFLUENCE GAME: Obama limits stimulus lobbying
- * Quote of the Day: "Two novels can change a booki...
- Fail
- Investigators say food tracing system full of gaps
- Sources: Extensive regulatory overhaul planned
- Clinton: US shares blame for Mexican drug wars
- Bones may be from US grave of 57 Irish immigrants
- YouTube blocked in China; official says video fake
- Sen. Schumer changes view, supports gay marriage
- Specter shifts stance to oppose card check
- Barney!
- Aah Redemption
- Still A Ways To Go On That Post-Racial America Thing
- Poorer
- Oops: Colbert wins NASA space station name contest
- Prosecutor calls Phil Spector 'demonic maniac'
- Octuplets mom fires free nanny training service
- AP source: EPA closer to global warming warning
- South Africa bars Dalai Lama from peace conference
- SXSW ends as buzz grows for bands who impressed
- Bigger Ones Than Any Man
- Like We Said
- That Worked Out Well
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- Soooo NOT What Was Intended ...
- What Would Jesus Say?
- Patience
- Summing it up
- His Mysterious Ways
- Obama: Anger over AIG isn't governing strategy
- Home Boy Makes Smart
- LA jury can consider lesser charge in Spector case
- Kitschy NJ store that inspired band may close
- Iran's supreme leader dismisses Obama overtures
- A Master Sings His Mentor
- Not That They Weren't Right
- Maybe This Will Do It
- Reflect On This
- Real Live Voter Fraud
- A Great Read
- Something For Lily To Work Toward
- Woman accused of church theft blames Satan
- Obama reaches out to Iran with video message
- HHS names health technology coordinator
- Stockpicker In Chief
- It's Hard Out There For A Honky
- George W. Bush to write memoir about 'decisions'
- `The Colbert Report' set for USO Persian Gulf tour
- New Mexico governor abolishes capital punishment
- Ill. Gov faces 'greatest crisis of modern times'
- Jaguar, Buick dethrone Lexus in reliability study
- Obama plays populist, anti-D.C. role in Calif.
- Schwarzenegger to help Obama answer GOP critics
- Durbin meets with panel, prosecutor about Burris
- Attorney general signals shift in marijuana policy
- Sources: US to sign UN gay rights declaration
- God Kills
- No title
- A 'Bit Of The Ould Sod, uh, River
- Erin Go Pittsburg
- Department Of 'No Shit, Sherlock'
- !
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- Vermont begins hearings on same-sex marriage bill
- Obama rejects SC gov's bid to use stimulus on debt
- White House: Cheney almost as popular as Limbaugh
- Just So You Know
- Vast Right Wing Conspiracy Getting Pink Slips In CA
- Power?
- Hope Rising In The West
- The Mouse King
- Does Keith Have The Balls? How About Rachel?
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