Saul Alinsky Rules
Saul Alinsky’s 13 Tried-and-True Rules for Creating Meaningful Social Change | Open Culture
by Josh Jones
Saul David Alinsky died 36 years before the election of Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton’s first attempt for the presidency.
But many feverish reporters on social media, talk radio, and YouTube might have made one think he lurked behind these politicians like Rasputin. Spoken of by many on the right as a servant of the devil, “American Joseph Goebbels,” and “dangerous harbinger of insurrection,” Alinsky developed a reputation for insidiousness that may exceed his influence, considerable though it may be.
Alinsky’s 1971 manual of political warfare found its way into the hands of some of the same Tea Party organizers who had made his name synonymous with everything they despised about the left.
But Alinsky wrote Rules for Radicals for his followers. From the 30s to the 70s, he organized poor, working people in Chicago and other cities and addressed countercultural and civil rights activists nationwide. The opening paragraph of the book makes it perfectly clear who his readers are:
What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be. The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. Rules for Radicals is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelliwas an Italian diplomat, author, philosopher and historian who lived during the Renaissance. He is best known for his political work “The Prince”, written in about 1513 but not published until 1532.
Machiavelli believed that public and private morality had to be understood as two different things in order to rule well. As a result, a ruler must be concerned not only with reputation, but also must be positively willing to act unscrupulously at the right times.
In other words, “The end justifies the means”
Alinsky’s reference to Machiavelli sets readers up for a high degree of ruthlessness and realpolitik, and the book does not disappoint.
If you’re looking for Anarchist Cookbook-level radicalism, you’d best look elsewhere. While Alinsky talked tough, in an honest Chicago way, he did not recommend violence in his manual.
In the Prologue, he denounces “parts of the far left who have gone so far in the political circle that they are now all but indistinguishable from the extreme right.” In recent revolutionary violence, he writes, “we are dealing with people who are merely hiding psychosis behind a political mask.”
Rules for Radicals recommends mostly working within the system—though in the twisted way Machiavelli is reputed to have done.
Alinsky’s list of 13 “Rules for Radicals,” offered with his limitation that political activism cannot be a self-serving enterprise: “People cannot be free unless they are willing to sacrifice some of their interests to guarantee the freedom of others. The price of democracy is the ongoing pursuit of the common good by all of the people.”
Here are his rules:
- Power is not what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have” Power is derived from 2 main sources- money and people.” Have Nots” must build power from flesh and blood.
2. “Never go outside the expertise of your people.” It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone.
3. “Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.” Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty.
4. “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.” If the rule is that every letter gets a reply, send 30,000 letters. You can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their own rules.
6. “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.” They’ll keep doing it without urging and come back to do more. They’re doing their thing, and will even suggest better ones.
7. “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.” Don’t become old news.
9. “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.” Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist.
11. “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.” Violence from the other side can win the public to your side because the public sympathizes with the underdog.
12. “The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.” Never let the enemy score points because you’re caught without a solution to the problem.
13. “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.
Alinsky’s rules can and have been used for anti-democratic designs. But he defines the U.S. as a “society predicated on voluntarism.”
His vision of democracy leans heavily on that of the keen outside observer of early America, Alexis de Tocqueville, the French philosopher who “gravely warned,” writes Alinsky, “that unless individual citizens were regularly involved in the action of governing themselves, self-government would pass from the scene.”
By Eric Utter
Democrats believe projection plus gaslighting equals victory…and they may be correct in that assessment
What is Gaslighting? It is the psychological manipulation of a person usually over an extended period of time that causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories and typically leads to confusion, loss of confidence and self-esteem, uncertainty of one’s emotional or mental stability, and a dependency on the perpetrator.
So, let’s look at how one of Alinsky’s rules is being used by the Democratic Party.
Current Democratic Strategy: “We tell them that Republicans are semi-fascist authoritarians bent on destroying Democrats…and our nation. And that they are a ‘threat to our democracy.'”.
Alinsky’s applicable rules:
5. “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions.
6. “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.” They’ll keep doing it without urging and come back to do more. They’re doing their thing, and will even suggest better ones.
9. “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.” Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist.
11. “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.” Violence from the other side can win the public to your side because the public sympathizes with the underdog.
13. “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.
Don’t believe me? Here is a direct quote from President Bidens speech on September 1, 2022:
“Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal. Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic. …
But there’s no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans. And that is a threat to this country. …
And here, in my view, is what is true: MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people. They refuse to accept the results of a free election, and they’re working right now as I speak in state after state to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself.”
Want another example?
President Biden recently said there was “zero inflation” in July just hours after federal Consumer Price Index data showed an inordinately high annual inflation rate of 8.5%. The economy is doing great!
11. “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.” Violence from the other side can win the public to your side because the public sympathizes with the underdog.
How about another.
The summer long riots of 2020 were “mostly peaceful.” (Don’t pay any attention to the looted stores, the burning buildings and police cars, or the innocent people being assaulted.)
- “Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.” Power is derived from 2 main sources – money and people. “Have-Nots” must build power from flesh and blood.
6. “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.” They’ll keep doing it without urging and come back to do more. They’re doing their thing, and will even suggest better ones.
10. “The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.” It is this unceasing pressure that results in the reactions from the opposition that are essential for the success of the campaign.
Finally, one more.
January 6 was an insurrection and a catastrophe on the order of 9/11, Pearl Harbor, or the Civil War.
8. “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.” Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new.
9. “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.” Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist.
10. “The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.” It is this unceasing pressure that results in the reactions from the opposition that are essential for the success of the campaign.
Don’t you understand yet? You didn’t see what you saw, didn’t hear what you heard. And you shouldn’t believe what you believe.
You are an extremist, a semi-fascist, a terrorist, a threat to our democracy…and freedom everywhere..
Biden and his bunch have essentially decriminalized crime — and criminalized conservatism, traditional Christianity, and the founding values and principles of the nation they lead. It is they who have launched attacks on everything American, attacks on language, attacks on morality.
As President Trump has noted, it is an attack on you. It is an attack on me. And anyone with whom they disagree.
Ultimately, it is an attack on reality itself.
Biden and his party are following the teachings of Saul Alinsky.
Pay attention America, before it is too late.