(24) “You want to organize for power!”(2)

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When the street revolution of Western youths was in full swing in the 1960s, there was one who dismissed their naivety, sincerity, and idealism. “If the real radical finds that having long hair sets up psychological barriers to communication and organization, he cuts his hair,” he said. The man was Saul Alinsky, a radical activist who wrote books, taught students, and personally oversaw the implementation of his theories, eventually becoming the “para-communist” agitator with the most baneful influence for decades.

Aside from his worship of Lenin and Castro, Alinsky has also explicitly praised the devil himself. In his book Rules for Radicals, one of the epigraphs says: “Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins—or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom—Lucifer.”

The reason Alinsky is best termed a “para-communist” is because unlike the Old Left (political leftists) of the 1930s and the New Left (cultural leftists) of the 1960s, Alinsky refused to affirmatively describe his political ideals. His overall view was that world has “the haves,” “the have-a-little-want-mores,” and “the have-nots.” He called upon the “have-nots” to rebel against “the haves” by any means and to seize wealth and power in order to achieve a completely “equal” society. He sought to seize power through any means, while at the same time destroying the existing social system. He has been called the Lenin of the post-communist Left and its “Sun-Tzu.” [1]

In Rules for Radicals, published in 1971, Alinsky systematically set forth his theory and methods of community organizing. These rules include: “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.” “Keep the pressure on.” “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.” “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” [2] The essence of his rules was about using unscrupulous means to achieve his goals and gain power.

The nature of Alinsky’s seemingly dry rules for community organization reveal their true nature when applied in the world. When the Vietnam War was still in progress in 1972, George H. W. Bush, the then U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, gave a speech at Tulane University. Anti-war students sought advice from Alinsky, and he said that the standard protest format would likely result in them being simply expelled. He thus suggested that they don Ku Klux Klan garb, and whenever Bush defended the Vietnam War, they’d stand up with placards and say, “The KKK Supports Bush.” The students did so “with very successful, attention-getting results.” [3]

Alinsky and his followers were delighted with two other protests he planned. In 1964, in negotiations with Chicago city authorities, Alinsky concocted the plan of organizing 2,500 activists to occupy the toilets in Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, one of the busiest in the world, to force its operations to grind to a halt. Prior to actually carrying off the plan, he leaked the plan, thus forcing the authorities to negotiate. [4]

In order to force Kodak, the major employer in Rochester, New York, to increase the ratio of black employees to white, Alinsky came up with a similar tactic. Seizing on the upcoming Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, an important cultural tradition in the city, Alinsky planned to purchase hundreds of tickets for his activists, feeding them only baked beans beforehand. They would fill the theater and ruin the performance with flatulence. This episode didn’t come to fruition, but the threat of it as well as other of Alinsky’s tactics, enhanced his position in negotiations.

Alinsky’s book leaves the impression of a sinister, cold, and calculating individual. His use of “community organizing” was really a form of gradual revolution. [5]

The differences between Alinsky and his forerunners were several. First, both Old and New Leftists were at least idealistic in their rhetoric, while Alinsky stripped “revolution” of its idealistic veneer and exposed it as a naked power struggle. When he conducted training for “community organizations,” he would routinely ask the trainees: Why organize? Some would say that it was to help others, but Alinsky would roar back: “You want to organize for power!” [6]

In the training manual Alinky’s followers went by, it said: “We are not virtuous by not wanting power. … We are really cowards for not wanting power”; “power is good”; “powerlessness is evil.” [7]

Second, Alinsky didn’t think much of the rebellious youth of the ’60s who were publicly against the government and society. He stressed that whenever possible, one should enter the system, while biding time for opportunities to subvert it from within.

Third, Alinsky’s ultimate goal was to subvert and destroy, not to benefit any group—thus in implementing his plan, it was necessary to conceal the real purpose with localized or staged goals that were seemingly reasonable or harmless by themselves, to mobilize large crowds to action. When people were accustomed to being mobilized, it was relatively easy to mobilize them to act toward more radical goals.

In Rules for Radicals, Alinsky said: “Any revolutionary change must be preceded by a passive, affirmative, non-challenging attitude toward change among the mass of our people. … Remember: once you organize people around something as commonly agreed upon as pollution, then an organized people is on the move. From there it’s a short and natural step to political pollution, to Pentagon pollution.”

A leader from Students for a Democratic Society who was deeply influenced by Alinsky nailed the essence of radicalizing protests: “The issue is never the issue; the issue is always the revolution.” The radical left after the ’60s was deeply influenced by Alinsky, and always turned the response to any social issue into dissatisfaction with the status quo overall, as a stepping stone for advancing the revolutionary cause.

Fourth, Alinsky turned politics into a guerrilla war without restraint. In explaining his strategy for community organizing, Alinsky told his followers that they need to hit the enemy’s eyes, ears, and nose. As he writes in Rules for Radicals: “First the eyes; if you have organized a vast, mass-based people’s organization, you can parade it visibly before the enemy and openly show your power. Second the ears; if your organization is small in numbers, then do what Gideon did: conceal the members in the dark but raise a din and clamor that will make the listener believe that your organization numbers many more than it does. Third, the nose; if your organization is too tiny even for noise, stink up the place.”

Fifth, from his actions in politics, Alinsky emphasized using the most evil aspects of human nature, including indolence, greed, envy, and hatred. Sometimes, participants in his campaigns would win petty gains, but this only made them more cynical and shameless. In order, to subvert the political system and social order of free countries, Alinsky was happy to lead his followers to moral bankruptcy. From this, it can be inferred that if he were to truly gain power, he would neither take care of nor pity his former comrades.

Decades later, two prominent figures in American politics who were deeply influenced by Alinsky helped to usher in the silent revolution that has subverted American civilization, traditions, and values. At the same time, the no-holds-barred, unrestricted guerrilla warfare-type protests advocated by Alinsky became popular in America from the 1970s on. This is clear through the “vomit-in” protest in 1999 against the World Trade Organization in Seattle (where protesters ingested a drug that induced vomiting, then collectively vomited in the Plaza and conference center), the Occupy Wall Street movement, the Antifa movement, and so on.

It is salient to note that in one of the introductory pages of Rules for Radicals, Alinsky gave his “acknowledgment to the very first radical,” Lucifer. Further, in an interview with Playboy magazine shortly before his death, Alinsky said that when he died, he would “unreservedly choose to go to hell” and begin to organize the proletariat there because “they’re my kind of people.” [8]

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Alinsky

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